Obviously I'm slightly late for this year but how do you go about
growing your own potatoes ready for you xmas meal.

I saw somewhere that you can plant some seed potatoes in seed compost
in a bin in september , is this true ? What sort of potatoes should
you plant ?

Do you need to water , feed etc

Do you need to protect from frost ?


Cheers

Colin

Gardening_Convert wrote:
Obviously I'm slightly late for this year but how do you go about
growing your own potatoes ready for you xmas meal.
I saw somewhere that you can plant some seed potatoes in seed compost
in a bin in september , is this true ? What sort of potatoes should
you plant ?
Do you need to water , feed etc
Do you need to protect from frost ?

You can grow anything at anytime of the year, if you really wish to.
Daffodils for xmas, tulips in August, peppers in October ... However,
your results, success, produce taste etc. is considerably affected by
the conditions you grow your produce. The weather, the sun, the rain,
the insects, the wind (for humidity and cooling system) especially the
light etc. With this in mind, without sun and warmth, one would require
a greenhouse with lamps, without rain, one would need some sort of
irrigation system, if too damp, if too cold, the frost, the snow, the
diseases via the dampness, the dark conditions etc ... you must really
think is this worthwhile?!

If it was that easy, then everyone would do it, but it's left to the
huge nurseries of Holland, Essex and warmer part of our world to do it,
using tons of energy to provide out of season foods and using tons of
pesticide and growth hormones. I personally think it's very sad indeed.

I have my own grown potatoes for my xmas dinner, cabbages, broadbeans
and peas (frozen) and leeks. But my spuds went in as seeds in March
(easter day is the custom). I had potatoes in June, these where my
earlies. Why would one do it in September?

Here, check this site. You are only 2 months away to bying your seeds
and cheating them (sprouting)!! I can't wait for March )

http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/fruit_...r_1_potato.asp

La Puce wrote:
[...]
and peas (frozen) and leeks. But my spuds went in as seeds in March
(easter day is the custom). I had potatoes in June, these where my
earlies. Why would one do it in September?
[...]

It's a perfectly normal thing to do: I'm amazed you haven't heard of
it. You do it for the delight of having fresh home-grown new potatoes
at Christmas.

Having said that, I'll admit I've never done it myself.

Another thing people do is to plant early varieties _late_ : that can
extend your cropping. (They are early more in the sense of being
quicker than of needing the conditions found earlier in the year.)

On 21/12/05 9:54, in article
, "Gardening_Convert"
wrote:

Obviously I'm slightly late for this year but how do you go about
growing your own potatoes ready for you xmas meal.

I saw somewhere that you can plant some seed potatoes in seed compost
in a bin in september , is this true ? What sort of potatoes should
you plant ?

Do you need to water , feed etc

Do you need to protect from frost ?

Chit them in the normal way and put them into good compost in September.
Water them and protect them from frost. My husband has grown potatoes in a
grow bag! Of course, the other trick is to dig them at the normal time of
year, put them into a sealed tin and bury them in the ground until you want
to eat them in the winter. A lot of old gardeners used to do that, though I
haven't tried it. But I'm assured that it works.

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

Mike Lyle wrote:
It's a perfectly normal thing to do: I'm amazed you haven't heard of
it. You do it for the delight of having fresh home-grown new potatoes
at Christmas.

Don't get me wrong, I heard of it - though like you, I've never done
it, and nobody around me has never done it. Therefore I always wondered
why one would bother when September is such a busy harvest time (I'm
usually preparing 2 school's festival) and it's the joy of picking the
produce rather than planting potatoes in tubs to grow during the
darkest months.

Having said that, I'll admit I've never done it myself.

It's an odd thing to do - unless like this year it's been so mild and
sunny and light until November, one would think it a usefull thing to
do. But I find myself with so much tatoes I couldn't imagine planting
some more in September - unless it's in a tea pot as an experiment. I
like strange containers ;o)

Another thing people do is to plant early varieties _late_ : that can
extend your cropping. (They are early more in the sense of being
quicker than of needing the conditions found earlier in the year.)

I've done that - by default though. And we used the no-dig technique.
We've found we had lots of slugs problems in early summer with all the
rain we had - then it was really dry and I went away for a month.
Therefore there's a reason why we do things the way our great grand
fathers did. And then there's the moon ...

Perhaps it's a personnal thing. If you have all the time in the world,
which I look forward in having when I'll wear purple eventually, then
I'll perhaps do different things with my crops. For someone just
starting to garden, container veggies planted in September wouldn't
perhaps be the best thing.

The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains these words:

La Puce wrote:
[...]
and peas (frozen) and leeks. But my spuds went in as seeds in March
(easter day is the custom). I had potatoes in June, these where my
earlies. Why would one do it in September?
[...]

It's a perfectly normal thing to do: I'm amazed you haven't heard of
it. You do it for the delight of having fresh home-grown new potatoes
at Christmas.

Having said that, I'll admit I've never done it myself.

Another thing people do is to plant early varieties _late_ : that can
extend your cropping. (They are early more in the sense of being
quicker than of needing the conditions found earlier in the year.)


Last year I left Pink Fir Apple in the ground until December and they
were fine when dug up. They store particularly well as they're one of
the latest varieties to chit in spring, so it's quite a good way of
getting a good boiling/salad type potato late in the season. This gives
you something which could be considered to approximate to a new potato
taste and texture.
Janet G

Colin wrote
Obviously I'm slightly late for this year but how do you go about
growing your own potatoes ready for you xmas meal.

I saw somewhere that you can plant some seed potatoes in seed compost
in a bin in september , is this true ? What sort of potatoes should
you plant ?

Marshalls usually have these heat treated seed potatoes in stock at the
correct time.
http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/
So get a copy of their catalogue and you will be on their mailing list for
the future and just have to keep an eye out for them next year.


Do you need to water , feed etc

Do you need to protect from frost ?

Yes, yes and yes.

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London

Bob Hobden wrote:
Colin wrote

Obviously I'm slightly late for this year but how do you go about
growing your own potatoes ready for you xmas meal.

I saw somewhere that you can plant some seed potatoes in seed compost
in a bin in september , is this true ? What sort of potatoes should
you plant ?


Marshalls usually have these heat treated seed potatoes in stock at the
correct time.
http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/
So get a copy of their catalogue and you will be on their mailing list for
the future and just have to keep an eye out for them next year.


Do you need to water , feed etc

Do you need to protect from frost ?


Yes, yes and yes.

I have purchased "Nicola" treated potatoes from Dobbies for the last 4
years followed the instructions and had new potatoes for Christmas.
Just had a few last Sunday as a test, excellent!

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