On Wed, 03 Mar 2004 08:43:06 GMT,
am wrote:

Reading all the potato posts here makes me want to try growing them
too. What do you think are the best varieties to grow for a beginner?
The perfect answer, which I suspect will not exist, would be a variety
that is resistant to pests and disease, under/over-watering, and at
the end of it has excellent flavour and can be used for boiling,
mashing, chipping, and roasting!

It's really down to trial and error. What seems to be the ideal spud (
at least in the seed catalogue ) may well not work for you - local
climate, soil condition, environment etc. all have an effect of the
wellbeing of the crop.

For the beginner I would recommend what's known as a 'first early' -
AKA New Potatoes. These will crop before there's a risk of potato
blight.

From my own experience I have found Charlotte to be an excellent new
potato, and Foremost to be a decent 'workhorse' - both with a good
flavour.

For roasting and chipping you'll need a later variety ( a 'main crop'
type, or at a pinch a 'second early' ).

Regarding growing in tyres and buckets, what height does the plant
eventually grow to? I am wondering how deep the tyres/buckets have to
be.

The plants can grow quite high, due to the process of 'earthing up'.
The principle involved is a that as the plant grows you enclose the
stem with earth ( leave just a few leaves at the top ). This
encourages the plant to throw out productive shoots, which increases
the yield per plant. Realistically I'd say about three foot is a good
bet

I presume that you plant one per tyre/bucket? I have seen potatoes
sold in 1kg bags in the garden centre. If I plant one per bucket, I'm
going to need a lot of buckets! Or is it like buying a pack of 500
seeds: you don't use all of them at once?

Potatoes are heavy feeders, so they need a fair bit of space - and I
would think that a couple of spuds per bin would be all you could get
away with.
It certainly wouldn't hurt to experiment - you'll still a get a crop,
though the overcrowded pot would yield smaller spuds ( no bad thing
for a salad potato ).

The seed potatoes won't keep - you either use them or lose them.

Whatever method you go for, have a think about some frost protection -
such as fleece - because even a light frost will knock the plants back
( it will rarely kill them though, but it's so disheartening to see
your foot-high plants fall into a mush ).

Regards,



Thanks.


--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
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