ONION SETS AND SPUDS IN THE SHOPS ALREADY!!!

[Compo]

My local favourite cheap store Wilko now has onion sets and a few bags of spuds, is it too early for the onion sets and is it too early to chit out, i liked the price of the desiree maincrop spuds but dont want to get them chitting out too soon.......what do people reckon.

[Clive.]

Hello,

We got Dad stocked up with seed Potatoes on a visit to Johnsons Garden Centre, Boston on 21 Dec'...seem to think that is the earliest we have got them.??

They had, as usual, a very large range of varieties..at a reasonable price.

We came away with 3kg each of Swift, Lady Christl, Kestrel, and Sunrise. The first 3 being part of Dads established plan and he decided to go again with second early Sunrise having tried them last year to good effect.

They have been trayed up and counted for ref' and are currently stacked on the bench in the garage, thinking that this would be a bit cooler and hold them back a bit for a while (watching the weather for any very cold snap during which they may need some protection). CougarCat, who is resident in the garage, is in charge of mouse protection.

When we have bought seed potatoes nearer the growing season in previous years we have trayed them up and put them straight to chit..historically under the sideboard cupboard in the hallway here.!!

Clive.

[alan refail]

Good advice from Clive.
If you are buying from stores (e.g. Wilko) now is the time to buy, as stores, and some garden centres, haven't a clue how to store seed potatoes. If you leave it late they are usually covered in long sprouts and not worth buying.
Get them now and keep them somewhere cool and light, but of course frost-free. That way they will be ready to plant as soon as ground and weather permit.

[Compo]

And what about the onion and shallot sets? Would folk leave them a bit longer??

Compo

[Sue]

Hi Compo

Shallots usually go in February\March and onions sets late March\April. Shallots are much more cold hardy but the soil needs to be right or they sit and rot. My allotment is clay so I wait a bit, but lighter soils warm up faster. Onions tend to get killed by too much cold and they bolt and go to seed if put in too early and then they get hit by a cold snap.

If you have a cool dark place to store the sets, you could buy them now and try keeping them.

Sue

[Compo]

Thanks Sue

Think I will risk a bag of the desiree, and store them, will wait for shallots and onions which are always in plentiful supply.

Compo

[Jenny Green]

I was just down the garden centre today and they have seed potatoes already. I think it's too early. With the weather being so mild they'll all have foot long shoots by planting time.
I did take advantage of their houseplant sale though and got my fifth orchid for £2,50! Bathroom windowsill's getting a bit cluttered now, though!

[Johnboy]

Hi Compo,
The thing is to buy them now when you have the chance of all the varieties you want and simply store them in an unheated, but frost free place, and keep them in the dark and then chit at the time that you would normally. Even kept in the dark they will show signs of growth but that is quite normal.
JB.

[oldherbaceous]

As they now say you get a bigger crop from not chitting main crop potatoes is anyone going to try it.
Or has anyone already tried it, and can agree you do get a bigger crop.

I've got my first earlies chitting away nicely.

Dear Johnboy, you've only got about another four months to wait.

[Allan]

As the topic continues to be spuds, my experience in many years of growing them is that the once-kept potatoes did considerably better than the newly bought, certified ones, indeed it was partly the loss of my own stock, in particular Desiree which made me give up growing any. The best crop ever was those planted on a patch of ground where a compost heap had been cleared and just covered with a mulch, no digging at all to harvest them. The 'experts' can say what they like, I know what my preferred method would be if I had to grow my own again. The other myth is the idea of 'breaking-in' new ground by planting potatoes, it's the grower that does the job not the potatoes which crop very poorly in relatively poor soil.
On the topic of onions, I grow only from seed these days, six seeds to a 7cm square pot, plant out only when the ground is fit, no hurry as you can get more growth with liquid feeding while small than they would get outside.
Allan

[Monika]

We keep our seed potatoes in the dark until they show signs of sprouting, then chit them in the unheated greeenhouse with all the flaps open. When very light frost threatens, they are covered with bubble wrap, when it get's much colder they come into an unheated room in the house but, if at all possible, out again during the day. Has worked a treat for years.

As for the onions, I agree with Allan. I've been growing onions from seed only for years, multi-sown like Allan (I think it was Geoff Hamilton who dirst advoated this!). I think they keep better than set-grown ones.

[Geoff]

I always buy my seed potatoes in the Gordon Riggs January sale as they will be 5 or 10% cheaper. Off to get them this coming Saturday along with year's supply of fertilisers and lime, as much compost as I can fit in the car and anything else that looks like a sale bargain. Potatoes go in a West facing unheated bedroom window and first earlies will be nicely ready to plant first week in March.
I'll probably buy shallots at the same time but I too grow multiseeded 7cm pots of onions - didn't Geoff Hamilton use blocks rather than pots, you don't see them these days.

[jane E]

If you don't buy the potatoes when they're in the shops everyone else has and there's no choice left. If you leave them in the heat of the shops the ones that are left have spindley shoots. We have no choice but to buy! At least then we can govern the conditions they chit under. The shops' seasons are the same in gardening as they are in fashions and everything else - very early.
If the ground is ready I sow early - late Feb/early March with my first earlies and cover with fleece to protect against frost. That gives a crop by May. The way my potatoes are lasting I may still have some old ones then.