Kitchen Garden Forum

Can anyone answer a question on this?

For the past few weeks, our supermarket has been selling new potatoes from a variety of locations. Whilst I'd expect the Channel Islands and Cornwall to be some of the earliest sites, how have they managed to keep the leafy growth going through a pretty cold November & December to be digging now?

Or is this all done under glass?!

Afternoon Colin, are they definitely grown in these places or, just craftily packaged there!

Probably been in cold storage since last season

stuff growing in my garden, the autumn sown broad beans just broke ground
LOL, rhubarb is coming up early too! ...and we are told snow is on the way again!

oldherbaceous wrote:Afternoon Colin, are they definitely grown in these places or, just craftily packaged there!

Well these are Tesco's Charlotte's, from Cornwall with a best before of 28th Jan.

They actually taste ok. Any ideas how they were produced?

Peter wrote:Probably been in cold storage since last season

I guess seed potatoes get cold stored, but these ones seem in better condition than most seed potatoes.

Since it only states from Cornwall, and not, grown in Cornwall, i still have my suspicions.

Especially since it's Tesco's

Down here we have lifting potoes for about 3 weeks, I know a grower who gets new spuds to london before christmas and gets a huge amount money them, some are tunnel grown , but we have really mild areas .

thetangoman50 wrote:Down here we have lifting potoes for about 3 weeks.

Interesting. So where is "down here"?
Your location information looks very inviting, but is cunningly opaque

Sounds like Egypt to me!

Here in North Somerset I've just dug up a bucket of superb Pink Fur Apple potatoes from my garden that are still in the bed they grew in last year. I have light soil which is top dressed with plenty of my own compost and fed only with Comfrey tea.

A few people have mentioned storing potatoes or leaving them in the ground from last year.

However if this is done, would they keep their "New Poato" characteristics or would you expect the skin to start to get more like an old potato etc?

The new potato type is not just the skin, it is also the moist flesh, as the tuber has not dried out. They have probably come from a cold store with controlled humidity. Last year, the shops were full of new potatoes from Aberdeenshire, Scotland in Feb and March. I am in Glasgow and there is no way that potatoes would grow outside at this time.

hello all
we dug the last of our new potatoes from our poly tunnel two days ago orla was the variety they were planted in august .during the frosty weather i put a few layers of newspaper on the soil so it didnt freeze.
today i planted new potatoes in our poly tunnel sharps express this time for a change its been orla for a few years
i will put some sharps express in a paper bag and put it in the salad drawer of our fridge until august then i will then plant them into the poly tunnel

Nemo is your poly tunnel heated?
when do you expect to lift the first potatoes?

Compo

i should be harvesting the first of the new potatoes the first week in may.no i dont have any heating in the polytunnel its -1. air temperature tonight. but we use rotting seaweed when we plant the potatoes this seems to keep the soil temperature a bit higher,im not sure about the science behind it but it works for us plus the gulf stream might be a better reason for our early potatoes and late potatoes