Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi Im chitting my spuds at the moment , Can anyone give me a rough idea as to what date,s i should be looking to plant on ? I have 3 types to put in VIVALDI CHARLOTTE & CARA will i be looking at putting them in around the same time or will they be different as they are different types of spuds

I normally try and plant all mine on or shortly after St Patricks day.

many thanks for your swift reply

Please amend your profile to tell us where you are. My First Earlies are already planted, the rest (including Charlotte) will go in the first week in April.

sorry Geoff not very good on the pc im in northamptonshire . so i should be planting them around now . which would you plant first ?

Vivaldi and Charlotte are both Second Earlies and Cara is a Maincrop so goes in last. As you haven't got a First Early I guess Charlotte should go in first, I'm not familiar with Vivaldi but I believe it keeps. Perhaps Chantal from Rugby can give you a planting date, if you can cloche them I'd try a few Charlotte in a week or so.

Thanks very much Geoff for your rapid reply . I think i read some where you should dig over your potatoe patch a week or so before planting if so that could well be my weekends work many thanks again from a complete newcomer to veg growing . It a bit of a learning curve this year ,,,

Dear Ananemka, I know people who plant their maincrops as early as possible and their earlies last. It really depends on what you want to mature when. As a general rule, you can expect the following time-scale from planting to harvestability:
First earlies - 75 days
Second Earlies - 90 days
Early maincrop - 120 days
Late maincrop - 150 days.

So you can stick in half the maincrop and half the earlies now and expect to get a crop of earlies mid-June and maincrops mid-August. So you can plant the other half of your earlies mid-April for mid-July and the rest of the maincrop end April for end of September.

Of course, there's many a slip and the best laid plans etc etc, but that's one way of planning which at least has some logic to it. The main problems I find are:
1. the warmer the soil the faster the growth - so spuds sown mid-April catch up the march ones quite quickly. So I put the early-sown ones under fleece or polythene.
2. With dry sunny weather I find they are ready for harvesting earlier then I allow for. How early varies according to how much rain they've had.

Good luck
mike

Hi Mike Many thanks for the info on planting spuds , I have 3 upvc cloches doing nothing at the moment so it could be possible to plant a few 2nd earlies now under these to speed them on there way rather than waiting a few more weeks and planting them all together and having a glut that all need using at the same time ?

Another factor is frost. It can wipe out potato tops. They usually recover but it sets them back quite a bit. Find out where the last frost is in your area. This website will tell you if you go into Weather Settings:-
http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/
Plant the spuds 2-4 weeks before the last frost to avoid damage. Alternatively plant earlier but be prepared to rush out with fleece to cover them if there is a frost warning. (if you grow a lot of spuds that will be a lot of fleece!)

Do planting times vary if your're planting in plastic potato sacks which I'm doing this year for the first time? I imagine that in outdoor planted sacks the compost could become more easily chilled than potatoes might be in the soil underground. I've got a covered potting shed area in which I could keep them temporarily but it's draughty and gets no sun, so might be worse than keeping outdoors against a sheltered house wall?