Friday 18 March 2011

Potatoes

Seed potatoes first came into the shops a month or so ago. Unsure which varieties to go for we photographed the range in store and then did our homework.



Not really any much the wiser - because we hadn't time to read up on hundreds of options - we eventually decided on two varieties on the basis that they seemed to be neither too late nor too early producing their crop. And besides that they looked the best of the bunch in the photo's. Very scientific we are!


 Perhaps what we failed to consider was quantity.....

We now have 198 seed potatoes chitting away merrily in the grenier


What this picture fails to convey is the back-breaking work of planting all 198...
And then of course, how are we going to get through the combined yield of 198 healthy potato plants?

We will let you know!

However, I should add that Colin bought a tool to aid the planting, so we look forward with slightly less trepidation.....

BUT when is the best time to start this task! any guidance would be appreciated. My view is we should plant in stages rather than all at once.  

3 comments:

Jean said...

We have so little garden space for veg that we grow our potatoes in a dustbin and other large pots. We usually put them all out early April and continue harvesting until October, if we haven't been bothered to dig them up before. The longer you leave them, the bigger they get. Not that I'm an expert.
Mind you, we gave some friends a single bag of about 24 chitted seed potatoes last year. I think they said they got 80 kilos from them. So you should have enough to keep you going for a bit !!

GaynorB said...

Going on Jean's calculations above, you could be harvesting more than 560kg of potatoes.

I hope you both have 'strong' backs!

Colin and Elizabeth said...

I get the feeling Colin's training me to become an ox!!