Kitchen Garden Forum

I have just had an email in from Chase Organics to say they have been bought by Suttons and the seed side will now be under the aegis of Dobies.
Don't know about anyone else but just feel this is another step towards less choice and individuality.
Maybe it just shows my age!

On the plus side planning to get the first seed potatoes this week so feel the new gardening year is beginning!

Happy New Year to one and all,

Hilary

Hi ya, I got the same email and I wonder if they will keep the names of the other companies going. I am on the look out fot seed spuds but isn't it a bit early yet for them to be in the shops? Maybe not as I saw them putting out easter eggs last week end in one of local shops. If I do buy seed spuds I will have to curtail my enthusiasm to get going. Start of a new season always cheers me up if I can hold back.

I've used Dobies seeds for decades and I haven't noticed any change since Suttons took them over, maybe it will be similar with CO?(I did hear that some folk at CO have had redundancy notice though)

My problem is I get various seed catalogues through the door. Shortly though they will all be owned by the same company. So why not just send one catalogue, it would then allow them to lower the price.

I stopped ordering seed potatoes on line after getting very tiny ones mixed in with small ones I expected a reasonable size seed potatoes as my order was placed early I felt conned, now I want to see what I'm buying instead of taking pot luck ,wilkies do decent size spuds and relatively cheap compared with some of the big names

Popped into local garden centre where they had load of different spuds brought 2off 2.5kg bags for £6.

Our local garden centre (Twin Locks at Gargrave, if it's of any interest to you, Geoff!) sells seed potatoes singly and they tend to have a large and interesting range, so we buy ours in triples and grow them in large pots at home since we now only have half an allotment.

I'm looking for some for planting in the tunnel in February so need to buy them soon, got 10 at 15p each on Settle Market last year, could try Twin Locks. Don't try LBS, went there Thursday, big sign up "LBS IS NOT CLOSING DOWN", could have fooled me, almost completely stripped of stock with only the trade counter functioning.

Interesting site PA Snip with a Tattie calculator so I put my 4ft x 4ft bed in the calculator and got 8 spuds needed.

Last year I got a 2 growbag sets (from different companies) with 3 bags & 15 spuds = 5 spuds per bag.

I could probably get 9+ grow bags on 4 x 4 ft bed which would give 45 spuds needed.

Wondering what I am missing here as the figures are way out.

I read that potatoes in tubs grow far better when crowded ,so I tried it I filled four 25 ltr tubs with manure and soil I put three sets in each I also filled five 15 ltr potato bags with the same and put one set in each I put them all in the pollytunnel , when it was time to empty them the one set bags averaged around 8 potatoes in each the larger tubs averages 35 in each

No idea if you are missing anything or not Colin.

45 spuds in a 4 x 4 space, gro-bags or not, are you sure !!!!!!

I merely passed on a site whose seed potatoes came highly recommended

Were you calculating for First Early, Second Early or Main

I usually plant as follows

First Early / Salad spacing 12 inches apart

Second Early & Main 15 > 18 inches apart

All in rows 24 > 36 inches apart

Therefore at best your 4 x 4 area could probably accommodate 9 to 16 tubers subject to type if reducing distances between rows to distance in rows

Seems planting in crowded bags will give more yield unless the spuds are smaller than those planted in the ground.

The calulation was for first earlies and your planting guidelines are the same as others I have read.

This is what is being marketed
Pack Contents: 3 Gro-Sacks + 5 Tubers of Each Variety

Size (Gro-Sacks)
H18in(45cm) x W12in(30cm) x D12in(30cm)
I could get 16 of these Grow-Sacks in my 4 x 4 bed making it 80 tubers needed.

Just did calculation again using grow bag size 1ft x 1ft result showed 0
First earlies

You have room for 0 potatoes.

Second earlies & maincrop

You have room for 0 potatoes.

Something is not right there Colin would you put five sets in a one feet square planter sounds a bit tight

JBA are quite expensive by the time they are delivered and when I tried them a few years ago I was unimpressed by the quality.
I put my 10 First Earlies in a tunnel bed approximately 10'x4'. I've never understood this crowded bag growing and the limited yield per seed tuber that people seem to think is acceptable.