"Katie" wrote ...
I have discovered I have four potato plants in my rather small garden
that have grown from potatoes in the compost - we only have two small
beds and put almost a whole dalek full of compost on the two earlier
in the year, clearly some of it wasn't rotted.

I have done nothing with them, but am wondering a) is there any point
in doing anything b) if so, what (I seem to have a vague idea about
shoring them up or something like that!) and c) if I am likely to get
any potatoes from them and if so, how will I know they are ready?

Thanks from a novice gardener with many daft questions


You just never know with spuds until it's time to harvest them**, if it's
growing healthily and it isn't in the way let it be and dig it up when the
leaves have died and see what you have underneath. They should have been
banked up a couple of months ago but then some never bother banking their
spuds and get a good crop, so good luck.
In the days of poverty allotment gardening many gardeners used to cut their
seed potatoes into bits, with a sprout on each, and plant them.

** some say the thickness of the hulms (stems) as they come out of the
ground is a clue but as you have nothing to compare it with it's not much
use. :-)

Incidentally, we have now got up our Second Early potato "Kestral" crop and
it's very good despite the desert conditions, can't believe it. Slug AND
drought resistance in one spud, no wonder it's popular.
--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK