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Potato Problem

YviestevieYviestevie Posts: 7,066
in Fruit & veg
I've grown potatoes for the first time this year.  I used potato bags and planted 4 to a bag.  The following is a picture of what emerged from the first bag I have emptied.  To say I'm disappointed is an understatement.  Any ideas where I've gone wrong.  
Hi from Kingswinford in the West Midlands
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Posts

  • WilderbeastWilderbeast Posts: 1,415
    What variety are they and how big were the bags ? 
  • YviestevieYviestevie Posts: 7,066
    They are Vivaldi. I put the recommended amount of plants in the bag and followed instructions about earthing them up etc. I'd say they are about 18" across and 2ft deep.
    Hi from Kingswinford in the West Midlands
  • Allotment BoyAllotment Boy Posts: 6,774
    It might be worth checking out,  some past episodes of Beechgrove garden programme,  they often do trials of this sort of thing.  I think 2 or 3 tubers per bag would be plenty.  Remember potatoes are the same family as tomatoes,  so are similar in their requirements.  Lots of feed and water required.  The sizes are quite good,  bag grown ones are never as big or plentiful as the ones grown in the open soil.  I would regard it as a limited success rather than a failure.  As a lifetime veg grower you learn to accept limited success sometimes. 😆
    AB Still learning

  • WilderbeastWilderbeast Posts: 1,415
    I thought maybe the bags had been too small (just my opinion of lots of the bags I've seen for sale). I had 8 bags with 3 Charlotte seed pots in each, about 25 litres of compost and a handful of FBB mixed in. An inaccurate guess would be that we had about 3 10litre buckets full of potatoes. They were delicious and easily the best new potatoes I've ever eaten. I don't know if counts as successful or not ? I'll be doing them again next year. Oh I did water them loads, 5lts a day and I still found that ants were nesting in the bags which has to mean they weren't over wet
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    We did bags one year and had very similar results so didn't do it again.
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    You got more than you planted so I count that as a win. I plant a lot of potatoes and we plant them 12 inches apart in open ground for earlies and 18 inches for mains so I would think that bag only has space for 1 potato if you want to get maximum yield per seed potato.
  • YviestevieYviestevie Posts: 7,066
    I think maybe water was the problem.  There were 3 seed pots in each bag not 4 (the deflated ones were the seed ones as BL reminded me later) The question now is if I water the remaining 3 bags more and leave them longer will I get more spuds or have I missed the boat.  We ate them for dinner last night and they were delicious.  The verdict is out as to whether I will grow them again.
    Hi from Kingswinford in the West Midlands
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    I grew Maris Bard this year. Two bags with three in each, only harvested 2.5kg so not a good crop. 😕
  • IgrowfromseedIgrowfromseed Posts: 284
    I count 17 from the 3 seed potatoes shown. That's a return of almost 6 to 1 or a 6 bagger. I would be breaking out the champagne if my stocks and shares gave that sort of return!
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    The trouble is @Igrowfromseed that my seed potatoes cost 40p more to buy than the cost of buying 2.5kg of new potatoes.  My veg has to punch its weight to get it again. 🙁
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