Main crop potatoes - yield disappointing

[Beryl]

Everyone on our site is disappointed with the yield of their main crop spuds this year. What is lifted are of a good size but only about half the usual amount.
I imagine it is the weather again, lack of water. We have had very little rain for more than 3 months now.
If it is like this for the farmers they are going to be expensive in the stores this winter.
Anyone else suffering?

Beryl.

[Clive.]

At home here Kestrel have just been lifted...they are down in size and number and finished early with the dry....we are on sandy soil much improved with much compost. The Valor have kept going and it will be interesting to see what they have achieved in the same soil.

In a nearby field irrigation has been going on from earlier than I have ever seen...starting when the Potatoes where only just showing through.

At work on the heavier soil the Kestrel have kept going amazingly well and the ones I grobbled out as a trial are looking good...skins not quite set enough to lift as yet
Harmony seem good too...as do the Ambo..although these have pushed themselves out the ridge top in places more than usual...and there will be a proportion of green ones to discard as a result...and we need to have an urgent word with the tatey digging rat.?...seems he likes Harmony......

Clive.

[Nature's Babe]

Perhaps the lates will be better, we have had more rain last week or two,
and the tops look very healthy.

[Johnboy]

Hi Clive,
I do not know what is a good or bad crop for Kestrel but Mike, who has an allotment on my place lifted one root last Sunday and it weighed about half an ounce off 8 pounds. He has had some really good results with potatoes this year and he gave me some Edzel Blues (? spelling) to taste and they have a really superb flavour. I steamed mine and ate with a knob of butter and they were really seriously nice!
JB.

[Mike Vogel]

I dug up my Kestrel about 2 weeks ago, with equally disappointing results to yours, Clive. Many of the hauls had already gone brown and almost disappeared. But one thing I cannot complain about is the taste.

My International Kidney [second earlies] and maincrop plants are still green, though they have struggled to bush out because of the dry weather. But my late Sante have almost all gone brown and it is going to be a job finding the crowns when I dig them in their turn.

They have all had a lot of competition from weeds, sow-thistle in partticular, which I have periodically cleared. They are also in raised beds, which made earthing up difficult, as I had not collected enough straw or newspaper for the job.

[Nature's Babe]

Hi Mike, how do you earth up with straw and newspaper, does it work well, and how deep do you plant first? I ask because I heard it was possible to grow them on top of the soil this way - save digging, and help your weed problem, I haven't tried it yet myself.

http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organic ... _spuds.php

http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/g ... atoes.html

[John]

Hello NB
I try to get some really early potatoes each year by planting the seed potatoes at usual depth in a cold frame. Like with raised beds, earthing up is tricky. The first shoots that appear I earth up slightly but once the top growth is getting established I put in loose straw up to about 9". It works very well at excluding light and all we have to do later on is scrabble about round the plants as most of tubers are near the surface. It is a haven for slugs under straw so I put down a sprinkling of slug pellets before the straw goes in.


John

PS The straw keeps clean and can be reused. Ours eventually goes into chicken house as bedding, then to the compost and then finally back to the frame soil for next year's potato crop - so the natural cycle is complete!!!

[Nature's Babe]

sorry John I got my wires crossed there, I was thinking of Mike and his thistles, thanks for that tip, I will try some really earlies next year with straw. I use chicken straw on beds in the autumn, the winter rain washes and dilutes it and it is clean mulch time spring comes, and it stops erosion too.

[Mike Vogel]

My experience is much the same as John's, NB. When I see about 6 inches of growth I make little mounds of soil around each plant. Then as they grow taller I dump straw, newspaper, cardboard, shredded paper, etc around them, often covering the mounds as well as the soil between the plants. But this year I didn't get around to it for one reason or another. Mainly laziness.

[Monika]

We have just lifted the last Kestrel and the individual potatoes are large (larger really than I would like) but some plants only had three (large) potatoes on them. Presumably it was the lack of rain.

The next lot due to be lifted are Cara and Blue Danube, will report how they have fared.