Potato query

InTheMoorlands · May 2023

This is the third year that I have been growing potatoes in containers. They were planted the first week in April and have just started coming through. Problem is that unlike previous years all the containers look like this:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/uf/mns9g9gofqed.jpg

I'm now puzzling when to cover these up as they are growing at such different speeds. Any advice gratefully received.

philippasmith2 · May 2023

Are they all the same variety ? @Dovefromabove is the Potato Person so hopefully she will be able advise you

Dovefromabove · May 2023

I’d earth up so that just the tip of the taller one peeps through. Even if the others are completely covered they’ll soon push through.

InTheMoorlands · May 2023

All the same variety and all done at the same time.

Thanks Dovefromabove. I wasn't sure. Previously they have all come throught at the same time. We have had a very long wet cold spring so I imagine their growth was affected by this - lowest outside temperature last night was 4C!

Dovefromabove · May 2023

Brrr!

Sheps · May 2023

These were planted on the 8th April @InTheMoorlands we've had similar temperatures so hopefully yours will catch up.

InTheMoorlands · May 2023

Hi Sheps

Those look lovely, far more advanced than mine. I’m blaming the weather but having second thoughts! Everything else, apart from a trough of lettuce,is thriving, even two tomato plants a neighbour gave us and which we had to leave outside (greenhouse full) have been doing well:

I started growing veg. three years ago when I retired. My father must have been a great gardener as I grew up with the idea of just throwing a few seeds/plugs into a pot and wait for them to grow. It's a bit more complicated than that!

I usually manage to just about get two crops of potatoes a year. if the current crop are a bit late then I'll try something else later in the summer.

Sheps · May 2023

Everything else does look good @InTheMoorlands especially the toms.

Not sure why, but the spuds in the picture look a little strange to me, can't quite put my finger on it.

All you can do is follow the advice and earth them up and see what happens.

Good luck with them 👍

februarysgirl · May 2023

I planted my first lot on 9th April (bag on the left) and these are how they're looking right now.

The second lot went in on the 16th April. Dead chuffed as it's my first go at potatoes. That being said, the proof is in the harvest!

Skandi · May 2023

Hmm I agree that the small ones look strange, not how my potatoes look as they just come up. They look to me as if they were very weak tubers when you planted them, or they were planted very deeply. Personally I would take the whole lot out and start again, you have plenty of time yet. I don't think burying weak potatoes is going to help any.

My potatoes in the greenhouse planted on the 7th look like Sheps, but those planted a few days later outside are only just starting to come up.

As for a lack of nutrients.. they won't care at all yet you could be growing them in pure water and at that size they are only using up what is in the original potato anyway. I generally find that a few potatoes fail no matter what one does. It's only really annoying if you only have a few to start with.

Jenny_Aster · May 2023

MikeOxgreen said:

Potatoes grow like weeds. I think i'd give up on gardening if I was you and do something else. Some people just aren't cut out for growing things and never will be.
Whatever bought rubbish you've grown those in I've no idea, but it's clearly lacking in certain nutrients, probably and mainly Nitrogen and to a much lesser extent Magnesium.

Before blah, blah, blah and as a comparison I live further North than you in a very exposed location, i'm not retired, i've never grown potatoes in my life and I don't even eat them so this year is the first time. They're up to a foot or two of healthy green foliage, flower buds nipped off, have potatoes down below and will be harvesting 1st earlies in a few weeks.
I make my own compost too because as previously discussed, what you can buy these days in plastic bags is utter rubbish - it's your rubbish badly recycled and sold back to you.
If you put plants into rubbish you'll have rubbish plants. If you lived on a diet of chips how healthy would you appear?
Why you can't pick up a book and read it or research why your potatoes are pathetic and have yellow leaves is beyond me.

Thought I was on Twitter when I read your post. My understanding is that this is a forum where budding gardeners can seek help and encouragement. There's a possibility your post could put people off gardening for good.

Potato query

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