Kitchen Garden Forum

Hello

I've never grown potatoes before and on impulse at the weekend I brought some Pink Fir apple potato seeds - rather a few at 3kg bag. I already have some orla and international kidney chitting away...

Basically I have a fairly small patch so need to be careful which ones take up valuable patch space and most I intend to plant into bags or pots.
Whichs leave me with a couple of questions. I had heard that you can put 3-5 tubers per bag/pot.... although some of the pink fir seeds are very small - so should I add more?

I think these seeds are classified as follows:
Orla - first early - approx 10 weeks
Pink Fir apple - late maincrop - approx 22 weeks
international kidney - second early- ?? weeks

Although some internet sites label these as salad, I'm hoping this means that the pink fir will be ok in pots..... and some sites say int kidney are maincrop. It's abit confusing, does it mean that they can be either??

When do people usually start planting the spuds? Mid March for first earlies?

Thanks in advance

St Patricks Day is a good choice for start of planting.

Hi
It depends what you mean by "pots/bags".
I have always grown all potatoes in open ground, but I can appreciate your problem - potatoes take up ground that could be used for more productive summer crops.
As for your varieties I have grown them all.

Orla - an excellent cropping early
International Kidney - otherwise known as Jersey Royal - will grow enormous if left too long - can be less tasty than Jersey Royal suggests
Fir Apple - a very late, long-season, maincrop salad. It grows very large and I wouldn't try it in a container.

What to do, then?
I would try the Orla and IK in containers and lift them as very new potatoes, quite small. That way you get the best of the taste. The Fir Apple I would find room for in the open - let them come to maturity and they will store and taste like a new potato all winter.
As for how many per pot see
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/factsheets/gg36.php

Hope all goes well

Alan

I agree with Allan about the Pink Fir Apple potatoes, they like a lot of growing room, over a long growing season, so really beter suited to growing in the open ground.
Maybe you could just try a couple in a large tub to prove me wrong.

Just as a matter of interest, we love Pink Fir Apple but have found that just in the last 2 years they got blight. We've never had a problem before with any of our potatoes. Is that possibly because they mature later than others? They took longer to chit as well. Is there any way of speeding them up, or any other way of avoiding blight? Any ideas?
------------
Granny

Granny

We have blight every year here in NW Wales. The only way to avoid it is to plant and harvest as early as possible. This does not work with Pink Fir Apple as they are so slow to chit and require a very long growing season. I have not found any way of pushing them to chit earlier, not even keeping my own for seed and treating them "badly" - i.e. keeping too warm and too dark. I prefer to grow other salad potatoes which have the following qualities:
1. Chit early
2. Sort growing season
3. Store fairly well

The one I use is BF15 (a variety of Belle de Fontenay)

Alan

Thanks Alan, it's worth knowing nothing can be done. I'll try others.
-------------
Granny

Dear Granny, you can spray with a copper fungicde in July, and then every couple of weeks after that, this will help with the blight.

If you like Pink Fir Apple, do try Anya, we find it tastier, easier to chit and grow and with a larger crop. It can be used as salad potato and cooking potato and is equally good with both.

Thanks OH and Monika. Helpful advice from both of you.
---------------
Granny

Dear All,
I bung the PFA in during the first week of March come hail, rain or shine and whether they have sprouts or not. They don't seem to mind and they come up when they want and produce a crop before the blight arrives.
Further North than Cambridge it might be worth planting them into small pots in the greenhouse or spare bedroom. Do this as soon as you get them and plant them out as young plants. They need to go in deep so any young foliage will be protected from frost. PFA needs at least 20 weeks of growing season before the blight starts around early August so this might work to give them a few weeks head start.
Regards
Sally Wright.

Thanks for all the advice. Looks like I'll have to try and recalculate what I grow where. Any advice on how far to space the potatoes apart? I saw on the first "grow your own" programme that you can plant them deeper and not so far apart. Any reccommendation?
Thank in advance

I've grown PFA and Anya. Anya aren't as susceptible to blight as PFA. If you can get the PFA in early as Sally suggests and the blight hits at about 20 weeks, cut the foliage, burn it and leave the potatoes in the ground for another few weeks. The tubers are then usually unaffected.