Kitchen Garden Forum

Yes it is that time of year again and I have planted all my potatoes for next year.
I tried it as an experiment a couple of years ago and it works fine.
My cellar doesn't keep my seed potatoes - saved from this year's crop - cold enough to stop them sprouting so I plant them in November and let them come up when they are ready.
Has anyone else tried this?

PP, how do you keep them from getting frosted? It may have been ok during the last mild winter, but what about a very cold winter, like the one before? Are they in a polytunnel or heated greenhouse? Intriguing.

The very cold winter was the first year that I tried this and they were fine. I dig a trench a good spade's depth and fill it with good home made compost, a few slug pellets and a sprinkle of fertilizer. I push the potatoes into this and cover with some more compost. Then I draw the dug out soil into a ridge over the top. If it is very cold I put a layer of straw on top. I've had good crops with hardly any failures in both the very cold winter and last year's very wet one.

They are my own saved potatoes so I'm not losing anything if they don't grow and so far they have provided better crops than letting them over winter in sacks in my cellar and planting in spring, as they stay dormant outside and start growing when the soil is warm enough.
I did notice that they were a little later coming up than some Rooster that I planted in spring from some from the shop that sprouted before I got round to eating them.

The other day I found a few British Queen (the favourite early here) which had been missed and were starting to sprout, so I planted them to see how they go. We never seem to get frosts hard enough to solidify the ground so my hopes are high. Well fairly high.

Regards,
Gerry.

Good luck Gerry.
By the way Monika, they are outside not in the greenhouse. I do keep some fleece handy in spring in case there is a frost when they have appeared, but I need to do this whenever I plant them as we get frosts up to the end of May here.

My potatoes are through this week and a few more peeping out every day. I hope it rains this weekend like they forecast as the ground is very dry which should help the rest come through. I've also got the slug pellets out and some straw handy in case it turns frosty.

Dear Plumpudding, my early potatoes are well through now, and with frost being predicted tonight and maybe through the week, i will be busy covering.

These were planted at the end of March.

Our first early Lady Christl, planted April 3rd, are just beginning to break cover. Earthed them up a bit more yesterday but the fleece over them is a bit lightweight, could do with using heavier GSM grade.

Our four pots of potatoes, planted in the greenhouse but now outside, are well up. Last night I covered them in double fleece (we had -2C) and will do so again tonight because, after a brilliantly clear and sunny day today, it is likely to be even colder tonight.

We are quite desperate for rain now - the three large tubs on the allotment are empty so I am hoping for some good showers tomorrow afternoon, as forecast.

PP, is it worth planting your potatoes on November? What if we had had a really cold winter?

Thank goodness I covered them in a double layer of fleece - we had -2c as well.

It touched the edges of a couple that only had a single layer but the rest look OK. At least we've had a few good downpours in the past few days to freshen things up a bit.

As for the extremely cold winters Monika, they seem to be planted deep enough to survive so far and our ground doesn't get waterlogged so last year's wet winter didn't harm them either. Perhaps I've just been lucky so far but it seems to work. Planting them in November also means that there isn't much else to do at that time of year so it frees up some time when you are busy in spring.

It sounds interesting, PP, but I don't think I will risk it!
Our allotment is very well drained because it's on a slope with a drystone retaining wall at the bottom, so waterlogging is no problem, but I would still be worried about frost and slugs over winter!