Hi all, I'm fairly new to potato-growing. I wonder if anyone can advise how
many spuds I should plant to feed myself only? I tend to eat about one
medium-sized spud a day, on average. So far, I have planted 56 (4 different
harvesting times). My soil is rather clayey and hasn't been cultivated much
but I did dig in some compost. It's still a bit sticky but probably full of
nutrients.

Thanks,

Al

On Mar 8, 10:23*am, "AL_n" wrote:
Hi all, I'm fairly new to potato-growing. I wonder if anyone can advise how
many spuds I should plant to feed myself only? I tend to eat about one
medium-sized spud a day, on average. So far, I have planted 56 (4 different
harvesting times). My soil is rather clayey and hasn't been cultivated much
but I did dig in some compost. It's still a bit sticky but probably full of
nutrients.

Thanks,

Al


No-one can say. Potatoes prefer a light well drained soil but will
grow almost anywhere. They like lots of compost.
They need irrigation in dry weather.
It's not generally economic to grow spuds, especially if spaceis
limited. They are so cheap.
Better to grow and freeze more costly vegetables.

"AL_n" wrote in
:


Hi all, I'm fairly new to potato-growing. I wonder if anyone can
advise how many spuds I should plant to feed myself only? I tend to
eat about one medium-sized spud a day, on average. So far, I have
planted 56 (4 different harvesting times). My soil is rather clayey
and hasn't been cultivated much but I did dig in some compost. It's
still a bit sticky but probably full of nutrients.

Thanks,

Al

Sounds about right to me 56, and i'm guessing you have first and second
earlies among them. If you have I think you will find that you will eat
them as fast as they are ready, they are sooo tasty when homegrown and
freshly dug. My preference is boiled, but the larger ones bake well and the
chips are very nice too depending on variety.

Early maincrop and maincrop are worth growing but imo nothing to write home
about, but can sometimes be nice and cheap in the shops and also very
expensive, depending on the growing weather I assume.

A very good friend has an allotment with clay soil and he has mostly superb
harvests of spuds doing just what you have done. Just waters them.

Baz

On Mar 8, 10:23*am, "AL_n" wrote:
Hi all, I'm fairly new to potato-growing. I wonder if anyone can advise how
many spuds I should plant to feed myself only? I tend to eat about one
medium-sized spud a day, on average. So far, I have planted 56 (4 different
harvesting times). My soil is rather clayey and hasn't been cultivated much
but I did dig in some compost. It's still a bit sticky but probably full of
nutrients.

Thanks,

Al


I'd say as many as you can lay a piece of string around.

On 8 Mar 2012 10:23:26 GMT, "AL_n" wrote:


Hi all, I'm fairly new to potato-growing. I wonder if anyone can advise how
many spuds I should plant to feed myself only? I tend to eat about one
medium-sized spud a day, on average. So far, I have planted 56 (4 different
harvesting times). My soil is rather clayey and hasn't been cultivated much
but I did dig in some compost. It's still a bit sticky but probably full of
nutrients.

Thanks,

Al


Got any well rotted muck to put on top of them?
--
http://www.voucherfreebies.co.uk

mogga wrote in
:

Got any well rotted muck to put on top of them?

Not at present. I do have some half-composted horse manure that I could
pile onto where I planted each potato. Would that be a good move - say, a
one shovel-full onto the spot where each was planted?

Al

Baz wrote in
:

"AL_n" wrote in
:


Hi all, I'm fairly new to potato-growing. I wonder if anyone can
advise how many spuds I should plant to feed myself only? I tend to
eat about one medium-sized spud a day, on average. So far, I have
planted 56 (4 different harvesting times). My soil is rather clayey
and hasn't been cultivated much but I did dig in some compost. It's
still a bit sticky but probably full of nutrients.

Thanks,

Al

Sounds about right to me 56, and i'm guessing you have first and
second earlies among them. If you have I think you will find that you
will eat them as fast as they are ready, they are sooo tasty when
homegrown and freshly dug.

I'm looking forward to that! It'll be nice knowing that they have been
grown organically too: No hormones, no pesticides, no questionable
chemicals. It'll be very interesting to see what sort of quality of veggies
this less-than-ideal soil produces.

Al