This year's potato yields

[The Mouse]

Hello,

How are everyone's early potatoes doing? I have been really disappointed to find that my Charlottes, usually great croppers, have only been yielding between 1 and 4 tubers per plant - most only 2 or 3! I thought that maybe I had been unlucky and not had good seed, but it seems that everyone else on our site has similar problems.

Having always believed that potatoes liked water, we all expected a good crop from the reasonably healthy-looking plants.

Is this a widespread problem this year?

[Colin Miles]

I tried my Charlottes a couple of weeks ago and reckoned they needed another month. Am thinking of trying again tomorrow and will report back. But I wonder if your problem in Northampton is down to the early drought? I am repeating the info I posted regarding patio potatoes below.

I had a problem with Charlotte yield a couple of years ago and this is what Alan Romans told me..

'Your situation is probably down to the watering at two key growing stages. You may have noticed that growers are always keen to organize irrigation for surprisingly young plants in the late Spring. This is because when the plant “decides” on how many tubers to set at the “hook” stage soil must be moist if lots are to set. There is then another key stage a week or two later when the plant “decides” how many tubers to fill out – again moist soil determines outcome. Pots dry out very quickly and even with care it is easy to stress the young plants without noticing – they won’t even wilt slightly because they are getting emergency rations from the mother tuber. You describe the signs of water stress at the first key stage perfectly. Water little and often and enjoy the fewer but much larger Charlotte you will get. '

[The Mouse]

Hi Colin,

It's possible, but if so it must have happened at the hook stage, because the lack of rain here ended about when the hosepipe ban was introduced - 6 April. This means that most potatoes would have been in the ground for only two or three weeks at most by then, if that. In fact, I don't think that most of mine went in until the beginning of April, and even then, the soil didn't really seem any drier than I've known it in some other years, so I'm not sure!

Out of curiosity (and to test the theory), I will try to find out when other people on our site put their potatoes in and what sort of yield they got because in theory, none that went in from April onwards should be affected by drought!

My own King Edwards went in later and definitely haven't been short of water at any stage whatsoever, so it will be interesting to see if they produce a better crop.

[Monika]

We have not started lifting any of the open-grown potatoes yet but their top growth looks fine (other than Sarpo Shona which is clearly diseased). Some 'Nadine' potatoes in large pots have produced a large crop, better than usual.

[Monika]

We have not started lifting any of the open-grown potatoes yet but their top growth looks fine (other than Sarpo Shona which is clearly diseased). Some 'Nadine' potatoes in large pots have produced a large crop, better than usual.

[adam-alexander]

I grow our potatoes in large pots - this years crop of Charlotte has been very disappointing - taste fine but only about 750gr from each 30 -35cm pot instead of the usual 1.25-1.5kg per pot. I might plant up a few more this week in the hope of getting a late season crop if the (promised) summer weather arrives.

a-a

[Johnboy]

Hi Adam,
Some three roots of Charlotte (not mine) were lifted yesterday and the yield although it was not weighed it looked to be very good crop of good very even sized potatoes. I must add these were not in pots.
I was given about 12 which I will begin to eat tonight.
Sadly the Sarpo Axona I am growing have not really grown as they should have and I expect the yield to be very low. A great disappointment.
However I will not give up on them.
I have visited several farms growing potatoes in the last week and they seem to have escaped any blight attacks. Normally by now there is signs of blight around but in this very damp year so far commercial crops hereabouts are standing up very well. A total surprise to me.
JB.

[JohnN]

Just starting to lift my Lady Christi earlies. First time I've grown them, but pleased with results. About 2-3lb per plant, 3" long to very small. I store the bigger ones in Tesco veg trays, covered with newspapers and black cloth, in the potting shed, and take the smaller ones indoors to eat first.
PS. Perhaps these postings should be under "Harvesting"?

[Vince]

Very disapointing yields from pentland javelin. Cara don't look much better & pink fir apple look dismal but may recover as planted rather late. Have sprayed against blight after receiving warnings from the potato council. Incidently I have noticed several people advocating cropping potatosfrom volunteer plants. According to the potato council these may be the source of blight and they advise digging up and disposing of any volunteers that appear
Vince.

[peter]

Managed a baking sized Foremost at the weekend!
It was an early, skin rubbed off when washing the mud off.
Fair yield of decent sized spuds.

[snooky]

Lifted 2x7m rows of Rocket and they were of varying sizes and for every sound potato lifted I lost another to either rot or severe slug damage and Hollow Heart,most disappointed,and talking to others on the site I am not alone with these problems.

[Colin Miles]

Lifted just over half a row of Charlottes. One or two decent sized potatoes per plant only. Had taken foliage off a couple of weeks ago.

I had planted the tubers deep and ridged up, but what seems to have happened is that the tubers have only formed high up. I can only assume that the bad wet weather caused the lower parts of the plants to wither away.

[FredFromOssett]

Finished lifting Foremost a couple of days ago; superb crop. Lady Cristl have performed strangely this year ; the row adjacent to the Foremost cropped reasonably, but the next row was very poor, with some tubers yielding no crop at all. The only tubers in that row to produce a reasonable crop were a few of last year’s left over potatoes which had started sprouting in storage, and were simply planted to fill the row.

[Monika]

We lifted some Anya, Nadine and Kestrel today. Overall, it's not a very good harvest. Like FredfromOssett, some plants did well with reasonably large tubers, neighbouring ones just had a few tiny potatoes. The Anya especially are mainly just very small tubers but they'll do nicely for potato salad.

We cut the tops off the Picasso and Cara, so they will be lifted in about 10 days - perhaps the yield will be higher!

[The Mouse]

Well, I've just lifted the King Edwards. A lot of tubers per plant - as always - but much smaller than usual.
Also, I had a lot of gaps this year where for some reason the seed potatoes failed to grow. I assume that they rotted away with the wet conditions, but that is just a guess.

All in all, despite the unusually small yield of Charlottes, I would say that they have done better overall. I have just harvested the remaining plants and there are some decent-sized potatoes amongst them. What's more, they are almost totally untouched by slugs. I can't say the same for the King Edwards, which are clearly one of the slugs' favourite foods!

I spent yesterday afternoon using up the most badly slug-eaten spuds by making a big batch of rosti for the freezer.