Anyone else seeing this with their potatoes this year?

[Rhys]

Hi all

I”m seeing a most odd emergence of potatoes this year. I sowed Casablanca first earlies on 3rd April, Charlotte second earlies on 10th April and Desiree main crop on 19th April and broadly, they all seem to be emerging together!

Casablancas: 7 from 12 through, first emergence 1st May.
Charlottes: 8 from 15 through (including all 5 in one row), first emergence 3rd May.
Desires: 6 from 16 through, first emergence 3rd May.

Does suggest that in a cool spring you derive little or no benefit from an earlier planting…….

Anyone else seeing this – I’ve never seen it myself before…….?

[charles]

The cold weather has delayed potatoes and just as well for any locations prone to frost. They will motor now!
However your Casablanca should have emerged a while ago, as first earlies do not hang around. My Swift are 20cm high and have been a lot of work to protect from frost! Other first earlies got burnt off and are remerging now.

[Rhys]

I agree, I was getting worried about the Casablancas, but the ones that are through are starting to grow well. The part of the garden they are in is shaded by an apple tree (something has to grow there every year and this year it’s the potatoes’ turn), so the soil is probably a bit cooler there than further up the bed.

Strange if there are some failures, as JBA seed potatoes have always been 100% reliable in my experience. I wonder if any of the cold nights when they were chitting did any damage?

I guess by the end of May I will know the truth: dodgy seed spuds/frost damage prior to sowing or merely late emergers…….

The weather here really was very cool indeed in April so I don’t think the soil will have heated up much before this week…..

[bluebell]

I weeded yesterday and was surprised that a lot of potatoes were hardly showing. This morning they appear to have been really motoring, although there does not appear to be any difference between the early planted and the later planted.

[Rhys]

All plants now through bar one Desiree which may be a bit slow as it was dug up by some unknown animal a few days after I planted and hence would have had to start again a few days late.

Comfrey plants just ready for the first hilling up in a week or so with grass/comfrey/peat/manure mix.

[charles]

Yes Bluebell, this spring it was fine to plant potatoes later, in fact I find that mid April is a good average, and late March to early April for first earlies.

[Author]

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