Seed Potatoes

kabakuyu

Seed potatoes are quite expensive this year and I was thinking of using some small potatoes that I held back from last years crop,problem is they are quite small(3-4 cm) but they are chitting already.Will they produce a crop?

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058340014/seed-potatoes

I remember the old crowd here 40 years ago and they would have all their own seed potatoes and they would cut all these in half to go even further .As far as I remember they would only ever save seed from potatoes that were grown from bought in seed

kabakuyu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121875895#Comment_121875895

Thanks, they are saved from bought in seed potatoes, I was just worried about the size.

Water John

They wouldn't need to be first generation from seed. Scileans, is the Irish word for the cut seed. Those small ones wouldn't be cut, but only one shoot would be left on.

Julia_G

How are your potatoes doing? I set my second-earlies out to chit a month or so ago and, unlike last year, they are so slow to sprout. I wanted to plant them out this month, but it doesn't look like they are ready...

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121901438#Comment_121901438

How do you get them to chit out again,used grow main crop over 30 years ago and I must get back to setting a drill for the house .Is it you just put them under a flourescent light and they sprout or do they need a warmth as well ,do they have to be spread out flat .All these handed down skills will be lost in a few more years I suppose .What variety are second earlies queens??

Would you have to cover them if frost is forecast after planting ,would it still be a bit early to plant

Julia_G

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121901532#Comment_121901532

I put them in egg cartons, eyes up. You're supposed to leave them in a light, but cool space, I leave them in the attic room - plenty of indirect light, heaters off. I don't think they need to be too warm, but they need some warmth to kickstart them (so until I was ready, I kept them in the cold shed). I think they need some space, so they aren't getting in each other's way. I put them in empty egg cartons.

Last year, I left them to chit on a bright windowsill, by mistake, and they sprouted very well and very fast. However, that isn't what you're supposed to do.....

I believe that traditionally you plant them out on St. Patrick's Day. Indeed, it might be a bit early still due to the cold. My plan was to plant the 2nd earlies this month and the main crop in late April, but let's see how we get on.

My second earlies are Lily Rose and the 2 main crops are Connect and Purple Rain. Last year, we tried the Levante and Bleuet, both as main crops. We got blight, but nipped it in the bud fairly quickly, so still managed to save lots of potatoes. Both great varieties, though the Levante didn't do too well in terms of quantity.

Also tried the lazy bed and a no-dig, with the no-dig produce surpassing the lazy bed by a mile.

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121901835#Comment_121901835

It is heart warming to hear your enthusim ,I never had the time for spuds too busy at cows this time of year but a grand uncle who used grow an acre spent as much time talking about them as the work in them .My easliest memory is actually him filling bags of old spuds out of a pit and we hitting off with a butt load to a hotel in Ballybunion of a fine evening probably in June before the new spuds anyway well 45 yearsago now!!!

jj880

We got all our early seed in Lidl. Cheapest we could find.

They advertise them on lidl.ie ahead of arrival in store...

Deub

For the second year, I bought Sarpo Mira (blight resistant). They are also slow to sprout this year. It won’t change the timing for planting though.

Julia_G

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121908926#Comment_121908926

Oh really? Do you plant even if the sprouts aren't too tall. How (if at all) does this affect the harvest?

Julia_G

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121901961#Comment_121901961

Why don't you plant a few this year in a container, close by your house, so it's not so much work and just as much joy. It's like a treasure hunt at harvest time

scarepanda

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121909257#Comment_121909257

You don't need to chit your spuds for a good crop. Chitting is something gardener's do to get the spuds started on their way earlier which just means a quicker harvest time. Commercially spuds won't be chitted.

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121909859#Comment_121909859

Early potatoes used always be chitted to get them ahead by growers who grow an acre of earlies

scarepanda

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121909898#Comment_121909898

Ah, I didn't know that about earlies. I would have thought the sprouts would have been at risk of damage if they were sowed with a machine.

cute geoge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121910245#Comment_121910245

The potato planter used for this job is a basic 2 row ridger with a mechanism like belt with cups that person sitting on ridger places the sprouted seed into from the crates the seed are sprouted in .These are all machines and traits that are gradually disappearing in the persuit of modernisation and progress

Deub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121909859#Comment_121909859

Exactly. I do only main crop so time doesn’t really matter for me. Even a light frost when they are out of the ground is not important. They grow back and I harvest in August so they have plenty of time.

mattser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121901988#Comment_121901988

Don't think the feckers advertised this year, or maybe I missed the ad. Lucky enough I saw them instore ( Queens ). 4 bags, same as last 2 years. unbelieveable value and gorgeous flavour.

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121910344#Comment_121910344

They were definitely on lidl.ie a week ahead of arriving in store. My father always watches the site for seed in February. We'll be looking out for more now in April for main crop.

nigeldaniel

In regards to the op I don't know about the size under 4cm might be a bit slow to crop.

These are my seeds for this year. From woodies. Last year's crop did not work out well at all for me hence the change to using wonders

Water John

Golden Wonder is a great variety. Late crop and not a massive yielder. High dry matter and stores very well.

scarepanda

I sowed all my spuds this week. Holy moly it didn't look like much on paper, and I hadn't planned on using everything I chitted...but I couldn't not plant them! I don't know what we're going to do in a few months time seeing as we're not huge spuds eaters here :)

This year I've gone with home guard and lilly rose (pink variety) as my earlies and Maris piper, Kelly and purple rain (purple variety) as my mains. All supposedly blight resistant.

Deub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121930571#Comment_121930571

I bought the same brand but I took sarpo mira. Second year, I take them. They are definitely blight resistant because last year, all my neighbour potatoes were wiped out by it in June and no impact on mine. A lot of good size potatoes and they store well.

howsshenow

My experience with the blight resistant varieties is that they just keep growing right into the Autumn giving massive potatoes which are difficult to boil all the way through. I cannot remember the flavour but I doubt they compare to Golden wonder or Rooster and they weren't floury either.

My learning is get the traditional varieties sprouting early and sow the late varieties as early as possible (March) and let them get as much growing done before heavy Blight.

And this year a few earliest in pots in the Greenhouse - They emerged last week and are flying it.

jj880

The best blight resistant seed we ever had was bionica. They also ended up huge but we just halfed them when boiling. Maybe thats sacrilege but didnt bother me much. Lovely big white spuds.

Julia_G

I can't quite recall the varieties we planted last year. We had 2 and one of them was blight resistant and the other was not. However, once signs of a blight hit, I chopped off the greens of the potatoes and left them in the soil for another 2 weeks before digging them up. Chopping off the leaves supposedly stops any further damage, so whatever is damaged remains so, but doesn't get worse. As a result, we had smaller potatoes and perhaps less of them, with some of them damaged and going to the bin, but most of them were saved and usable.

This year, we have 1 non-blight resistant variety (Purple Rain), 1 moderately blight resistant (Lily Rose) and 1 highly blight resistant (Connect) 🤞

Water John

Yes, once the crop was any way mature, you could remove the stalks, but they need to be removed from the plot.

scarepanda

Thanks Julia! I thought purple rain was blight resistant but I double checked when I saw your comment and realised that it's not :/ makes no difference I'll just keep it away from the greenhouse. But good to know!