On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 16:40:15 -0000, "Chris Stewart"
wrote:

~
~"jane" wrote in message
...
~ Sorry for replying to self, but I just found one of my potato day
~ notes which will help here...
~
~ At the Q&A panel, someone asked what kind of medium do they recommend
~ for growing potatoes in containers, with a view to growing Mimi. The
~ panel said 1/3 leafmould, 1/3 compost and 1/3 loam is what they use.
~ The initial thought is that commercial compost is too fine to hold on
~ to enough moisture.
~
~ Also a lot of containers such as potato barrels don't work, especially
~ those in which you plant several layers of tubers. If you keep adding
~ compost to a deep barrel as the plant grows, this causes severe
~ compaction of the lower layers and this stops oxygen from reaching the
~ roots. They said one should add perlite to open up the structure, or
~ use 12/14" pots and have only one layer of seed potatoes. Don't bury
~ too deep or the yield will be disappointing.
~
~
~ --
~ jane
~
~ Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
~ you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
~ Mark Twain
~
~ Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!
~
~Jane, Last year I planted three chitted seed potatoes (Winston) in six
~inches of soil in the bottom of an 18 inch pot. I planted them wrapped in 2
~large comfrey leaves. Every time the stems showed, I earthed up (covered
~them in compost with shredded comfrey to a depth of 4 iches or so. I earthed
~up about 3 or 4 times in all. To cut a long tale short, we harvested about
~9 - 10 lbs of lovely potatoes from each of two pots. Keeping them waterd
~enough was the hard bit - never let them dry out. This is the best result
~I've had from about 4 tries over the years. I'll try again this year! I live
~in Aberdeen, by the way, so they don't need much warmth! :-)
~

Thankyou for this! 3 tubers per 18" pot...fantastic... I think I
shall acquire a couple this weekend. I've got Rocket as well as Mimi,
so this could be fun to watch as the former are apparently ready in 9
weeks. And I have comfrey plants up the allotment (they did very well
last year despite it being the first season since I planted the three
6" stalks I'd got given).

The trouble with this time of year is that I'm always waiting to do
the first plantings and get itchy fingers! Thinking of all the things
I'm going to (try to) do this year makes me just want to get on and do
it!

Put a large bag of seed compost inside to warm up a bit yesterday, so
I can start sowing this weekend :-)


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!