"Kase" wrote ..
"Bob Hobden" wrote..
"Kase" wrote...
I may have this years seed potatoes in the garage waiting to be chitted,
but the volunteers from last year are already well under way. I've dug
over last years potato patch today and found a lot of very edible left
overs (quite big lates and second earlies - about 15 kilos in total and
I've still got another 1/4 of the plot to go). But there were quite a few
potatoes that had decided to start growning, and had about 3 inches of
root and 1 inch of stalk. I had half expected them to be totally dead
thanks to this years hard frosts up here in South Manchester, but I would
say that the cold has improved the lates in flavour by quite a lot. This
is the second year that I've stored the potatoes in the ground that they
grew in, and it is two successes in a row - who needs to learn how to
build a clamp ;-)


Don't you have slugs in Manchester? We have to get our spuds up before we
lose the lot.


For me it is a dilemma of 'the least losses'. I grew British Queen as the
second early and it succumbed to blight within about 5 nanoseconds of
producing a crop, but it was a lovely crop of extremely white tubers with
no flaws and even right through to yesterday (21 Feb) the slugs have not
touched it in the ground.

The maincrop was Picasso, which produced a huge crop but tasted vile (like
blight would taste if you could get past the smell!) when I harvested the
first lot, so I left them in the ground meaning to clear them into the
'green' bin for the council to sell to apartment dwellers. Yesterday as I
was finally clearing them I noticed that 2/3 of the crop were still
'clean' although the rest were like sardine tins for slugs - black slugs,
packed densely inside the tubers. So I tasted a couple of the clean ones
and they were lovely and starchy, with a King Edward flavour - result!

The issue about 'the least losses' is that in the previous 3 years to the
2 where I have left the tubers in the ground, the stored potatoes have
rotted in the middle starting after two weeks and with none left after
four weeks. That doesn't even get me to Christmas! So leaving them in the
ground, whilst unfortunately leaving something for the slugs, provides for
me through most of the winter


Even though we don't have a cold enough shed to store our spuds in what we
have left are still fine with only the odd one or two beginning to sprout.
Even the Kestral (SE) are still OK.
They shouldn't rot in storage unless they have blight or are badly damaged
with slugs or have been put away wet. After being placed on the floor to dry
we use or throw away all the slugged ones and any that are doubtful,
possibly with blight, before we sack them up into paper sacks. If blight has
been a problem, like last year, we then tip each sack out weekly for the
first month to ensure none are rotting. After that the occasional sniff in
the sack will tell you if something is wrong.
The key is sorting out the rubbish that won't store before sacking up.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden