Planning beds after harvest of 2nd early Estima potatoes….

[Rhys]

Charles

I decided this year to have a go with Estima second earlies after you said how good they were.

I’m thinking about what to plant after harvest and that, to a certain extent, depends on the date of harvest.

My plan, for NW London, was planting on 3rd April and harvesting on 31st July, which is about 17 weeks growth. I’m primarily interested in yield, so would rather keep them in the ground for a few weeks longer if that increases yield, but would prefer to have the maximum time across the rest of summer to optimise a second crop if no further benefits accrued. I’d be looking for 50 – 60lb from 20 tubers planted at 30cm spacing within 1.5m row and 50 cm between rows (as that inter-row spacing worked well for maincrop last year).

Would you suggest I harvested at a later date or is the end of July fine? I’m of course assuming that we don’t have a late cold snap which delays planting and that the spring isn’t so cool that growth is stunted badly……

[charles]

Yes the weather often intervenes!
However second earlies are programmed to ofinish most of their growing by late July, from March or April sowing, so I think you would gain little by leaving them in the ground after late July.

[Author]

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