I read with interest that the "plantings of Jersey Royals stalled
again this week after a spell of sleet and hail hit the island"

With any luck, you might have some ready before Jersey's come on

Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire

On 27/3/07 17:40, in article
, "cliff_the_gardener"
wrote:

I read with interest that the "plantings of Jersey Royals stalled
again this week after a spell of sleet and hail hit the island"

With any luck, you might have some ready before Jersey's come on

Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire


I remember one year when Jersey farmers planted their seed potatoes twice
thanks to weather probs. They still 'beat' the UK market. ;-)
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)

Beechgrove Garden, at bbc scotland program found chitting only to give
a slight advantage to earlies, if my memory serves me right.
roy
I used to farm and I let fields to commercial potato growers. I still
live on the farm and see potatoes growing strongly in fields 2/3 years
after that field was cropped. Conclusion: they are weeds. Chuck them
in the ground and they will grow and give you a good yield. Don't
worry about chitting etc.
Johnny

Janet Galpin wrote:

Is anyone planting early potatoes yet? I'm wondering whether to start as
I'm usually well under way by now, but my feeling is that the soil is
still quite cold (S. Lincs)

Feeling optimistic, I planted one half of mine on 11th March, some under
a cloche, some not. I don't think it quite frosted even in the cold
snap a couple of weeks ago, and I hope they'd be protected enough by the
compost (plus cloche for the lucky ones) even if it did, but I still
haven't seen any shoots yet. Should I start worrying?

I might plant the rest out tomorrow if it's reasonably sunny again.

Peter