Tag Archives: Seed potatoes

Half term something come back again

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Yesterday was a bit of a blinder weather-wise. There was a thick frost during the early hours of the morning but in the afternoon it was well nice and even got slightly warm!  I’m off for the half term so I got the old flymo out and did the lawn, forgetting to go around the remains of an old bush in the middle of the grass thus mangling the metal blade of the mower in the process. It was nothing that could be sorted with a slight modification with a pair of pliers!

chitted potatoes and moody catI’ve been warming up a bed for the past few days (where spuds are going to go) using some horticultural fleece and yesterday took the massive risk of putting in a small handful of seed potatoes and sticking the fleece back over, anchoring it down with bricks and stones as you know it’ll be cold again. I only put in about 6 so if they fail it will be only 90p wasted (they were 15p each at the great seed swap/spud event in Sydenham) but they are buried in about 3″ of pre-warmed soil and have fleece over the top of them so fingers crossed!

when the chits are downI also stuck one of the already chitted seed potatoes (the end with the nice green tips go skywards up!) in a large sack covering the tips of the chits with about an inch or so of compost and will keep adding more once they start growing. I put the sack in the homemade cloche/mini cold frame where it’s in the company of two seed trays of cabbage seedlings. The sack could’ve be started off in a conservatory or a porch keeping them out of way of the mad spring weather so give them a good start before moving them outside in a couple of months when the weathers better. More half term gardening reports to come…

Let them eat (Potato) cake

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we're just chittingIt’s that time again! With the seed potatoes I bought at the Potato Fair and Seedy Sunday the other week I’ve started “chitting” them so to get the spuds off to a good start.

All that entails is simply getting the seed potato, placing them upright in a suitable container, an old egg box or a clean seed tray with the “rose end” upwards (the end that has the “eye’s”) and put in cool, light and airy place, away from frosts and let nature do it job. Mine are in the back room by the patio doors. I’ve just checked them now and I must have put a couple by mistake the wrong way around as yellow buds were starting at the bottom. No bother, just turn them around  if that happens.

In a few weeks you will get nice tight buds forming not those long yellow shoots you get when a potato starts to spout inside the spud bag! I’ve also felt-tipped on the box what variety they are and if it’s an early or a main cropper, as it’s very easy to get confused having bought two varieties.

We were told a great tip last year from Shirley Calgary who said “Actually you do not need the whole potato – I have cut the potatoes in 2 or 3 pieces as long as you have a sprouted or sprouting eye you are all set.” Brilliant!

Remember to tell everyone else in the house that they are special seed potatoes or you might have them cut, boiled and served on your dinner plate like “lewishamgardens” did. That’s a crime!

A seedy sunday in sydenham

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The London Charity Potato Fair and Seed Exchange
Sunday 27th January 2013
11.00am-3.00pm
Sydenham School
Dartmouth Road
Forest Hill
London SE26 4RD

A last minute news flash about a seed swap event a stones throw from the weeds up to me knees HQ tomorrow. It looks a great day out and I’ll definitely be wandering up there if the weathers okay and I have a spare tenner in me pocket.

As it says about the event on the web:
At all these events in addition to a huge range of seed potatoes, there will be our Heritage and Heirloom seeds, onion sets, shallots and garlic bulbs, fruit trees, soft fruit and other edible plants such as rhubarb and asparagus.

If you’re up there I’ll be the one trying to do deals with the stallholders with bags of small change and old washers!

It’s alright this gardening lark, innit?

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A mad day to say the least. The weather was first rate and conditions that inspired a day of gardening and then later, chilling in the back garden. My petrol mower was chugging away at 11am with no complaints (the guy across the road had his going at the ungodly hour of 9am on a Sunday morning without the police being called, the power of sunshine eh?)

Today I dug up the spuds that started off in the home-made cold frame which were later served up for dinner. Not as many for the two plants as I thought (earlies aren’t supposed to be massive harvesters) but enough roast spuds for a sunday dinner for a family of four. Perhaps I was expecting too much, but quality far out-weighed the quantity. Comments on the produce from the family were along the lines of “these potatoes taste like real potatoes”, too right! There’s still the rest of the bag of seed potatoes-worth of plants to go, so there’s a good few more roasters to enjoy.

There’s even a second flower on the water lilly in the pond, and for the last couple of years we’ve been cursing the bloke in Lewisham’s premier pet shop as all we’ve got is the odd leaf or two. Shame! The above pic shows the water lily that cost us a fiver about 2 years ago, a few oxygenating pond plants I got off ebay for about £3 which is spreading like wildfire and two of the goldfish of the 13 my wife got for the price as 11 (£7ish) at the Lewisham pet shop after she listened intently to the bloke chat on about his own pond. Bargain!

What a difference a day makes

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How mad has the weather been this week? I’ve tried to make the most of it and popped out when I could to do the odd bit of weeding and have sowed the odd bit indoors. The combination of the sun and the rain is sending the garden crazy!

I tell you what else was crazy, last Sunday morning as I went downstairs to make a cup of tea I looked out of the back window to see a massive Heron standing motionless by our pond. It looked bonkers, I swear it was three foot high and it looked like it was made out of plastic and boy, the size of its beak! I legged it to get the camera and when I got back, you know it had gone. He must have been right disappointed, as all there is in our pond are thousands of tadpoles and the odd newt!

It was root day last Sunday too so put in the last of the chitted seed potatoes in the bed next to the pond which is mainly going to be just spuds with two rows of onions and a couple of bean poles in a tripod formation style.

As frost is still on the cards for a few weeks I planted them (chitted end up) about 4 inches deep and earthed up the soil around them which will help protect them from any cold snap. The super extra earlies I planted a few weeks ago in the cold frame are steaming on, I swear I am raising the thing with row of extra bricks each week. There’s a log wedged at the back of it now to raise it up even higher. They are doing brilliantly and it’s not even the end of April yet!

Keep ‘em peeled

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It’s been nearly a month since I started off those seed potatoes. I’ve now moved them into a couple of cardboard egg boxes by the side of the patio doors in the back room where there’s lots of light and hopefully no chance of frost damage. They are now less red-looking and there’s some nice little tight green/reddish buds or “chits” forming where the “eyes” were. The potatoes will be ready to plant out when the shoots are around 1.5-2cm long, hopefully around mid-march/early april when the ground has started to warm up and after the risk of frost has passed.

A couple of years ago one spring afternoon I got a bit overexcited when we had a couple of hours of sunshine and decided it was the right time to plant my already chitted seed potatoes. After rubbing off all but three of the chits on each one (a good tip if you want to get larger but fewer potatoes) I planted them into a prepared bed.

Feeling chuffed about getting another gardening job out the way I made myself a cup of tea then listened to a weather forecast on the radio where they warned it was going to be the coldest night of the year. Good timing eh?

So it was back out in the garden with some black bin bags which I put over the bed and secured them with a few tent pegs and bricks to protect the potatoes from the cold night to come. Next morning I popped to the garden centre and got some horticultural fleece. A bit of forward planning like checking the weather forecast a few days before would have helped but no, impatient here knew best.

Thanks to Shirley Calgary for the top tip about cutting the seed potato into two or three pieces when sprouted (each piece has to contain a sprout) which will give you more plants for your money. How good is that?

So hurry up warmer weather I want to plant out those potatoes. I love homegrown spuds me!

You’ve been chitting on me

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The other week I couldn’t stop myself and popped into the garden centre and got myself a bag of Desiree seed potatoes. They cost us £3.99 for about 40 which isn’t bad, as you’re talking 40 plants that will give you a good few spuds on each come harvest time in September, well worth it!

The first thing I’ll be doing is encouraging the seeds to sprout or “chitting” them, which will give them a head-start before planting them outside. We’re not talking the long pale shoots that you see when potatoes have sprouted after being stored in the dark, but ones that are short and sturdy. It’s worth chitting spuds before planting as their shoots usually appear in the ground a couple of weeks before seed spuds that haven’t.

All you basically do is stand the seed potato’s upright in a container (a seed tray or a cardboard egg box) with the blunt end of the tuber upwards (the end that has the “eyes”). Make sure the container is in a cool position with natural light and where’s there’s no risk of frost. I’ve stuck mine on the floor in the back room by the patio doors. Fingers crossed I don’t stand on them when I’m half asleep doing me tai-chi in the morning!