Kitchen Garden Forum

Although I have put my seed potatoes by the window for the past 2/3 weeks they haven't sprouted, plenty of eyes on them if I planted them without sprouts would they grow?
Bren.

Dear Bren, up until last year i would definately have said yes. But last year Clive had some sets, i think they were Swift, that never did shoot.

I think i have got that story right, and not just dreaming it.

But all my seed potatoes in the frost free greenhouse are not showing any sign of movement yet either. I'm sure that'a just down to being to cold at the moment though.

Are yours in a warm room?

Most of mine have no sprouts either. With this cold weather forecast to last till mid-April, you'd be well advised to keep them well away from the ground

Even in the greenhouse my pots of potatoes don't appear to be moving, and the others which are waiting to be planted out are just sitting there. Not sure if they are ok or not but certainly not sprouting any more than they had when in the garage.

Which brings me on to another question. How to plan ahead if, as seems likely the cold weather lasts through most of April? I have roottrainer tray of Peas and another of Mangetout, both of which are at the stage where I would normally plant them out. Not that they are growing much, but I would normally sow some more. Similarly with very slow growing cabbage, calabrese, broad beans and lettuce. As for anything else, like carrots or any other outdoor sown veg, it looks like we will have to wait.

If the wind would only drop I would go out and dig a bit more. Guess I'm getting too soft in my old age.

Same here with the potatoes, only Rooster is showing any sprouts and I will plant them in bags soon. But all the other things are also at a standstill. Parsley sown last autumn grew to about 1 inch height by November and since then they have stopped.

Colin, I have put my peas and broad beans (still in roottrainers) under cloches in the garden and hope for the best. At the moment the cloches still have snowdrifts against them which will no doubt protect the plants from the lowest temperatures.

Must admit the Charlotte and Sarpo Mira in the spare bedroom are sprouting quite nicely. 7 out of 10 of the Rocket I put under a cloche in the tunnel are through. The rest of the Rocket are planted outside under a double layer polythene cloche with snow for insulation. They have been like that other years without ill effect but never as late as is being predicted so will have to wait and see.

i think im correct in saying that the planting machines used by commercial growers would knock the sprouts off tubers so commercial growers plant unsprouted spuds .
add to that if yer planting a hundred acres of spuds how the hell would you sprout them all anyway.

our stoney ground isnt good for spuds so i only ever grow a few salad or earlies and dont ever sprout before planting.

Thank you all for your replies, that has but my mind at ease and will plant them out as soon as the weather allows. We planted them out last year on the 4th April.
This time last year we were having lovely weather like summer days.

Bren