Early Potatoes

amandstu

I planted some Kerr Pinks and since they are ahead of the other kinds I also planted I have dug them first (just as the flowers are going over).

They were delicious and some were a decent size but I am disappointed in the amount of potatoes per plant. (3 plants for a very good helping for 3 people)

Is that just because they are a maincrop variety and so are slower to develop as tubers?

Or could it be down to the dry weather ?(I did water regularly throughout but was still surprised when I dug them at the dryness a foot down.

Does that potato canopy evaporate at a rate of knots to cause such dryness in the soil? (the plants themselves are green and healthy and I would say around 2 or 3 feet tall)

Would potato plants be a lot thirstier than other crops quite apart from the canopy being known for preventing rain getting to the tubers?

My Potatoes

When did you plant them? What did you feed them with how often did you give the feed?
The haulms dying down is a better indicator of tuber readiness than the flowers. The cold spring could have a bearing. My own earlies are small and yields low.

When the tubers are developing you should be watering at a rate of 25l per sq m.

Regular watering is not a good idea. You need to water potatoes (and nearly every plant) infrequently, but saturate the soil when you do.

Potato plants are a very thirsty crop and tuber size, yield, maturity and quality are all improved/increased by watering.

amandstu

Everything was late this year.I normally aim to start putting them in the ground sometime after Patrick's day but I would imagine it might have been a month later this year.

I never do feed my spuds .I just start them off with a mix of grass cuttings in the soil as I find it cuts out any scabbiness and the plants seem to thrive too (I wouldn't be using spent soil either but the stable manure in it might not have been applied the same year)

I have never watered as much as this year and so I would say that it would have been once a day or every other day but I did know that you had to drench them.

I wonder if overwatering depleted the nutritional content of the soil....

Thanks for the "haulms dying down " advice .I always thought it was the flowers that counted and ideally I thought that the haulms would last longer if conditions were right.

My Potatoes

Yeah, everything very late. Soil was too cold in many areas 'til April. And any warmth was stymied in May.
Feeding makes a big difference. They've got to get their nutrition from somewhere. I use Vitax Organic Potato fertiliser, sea weed extract, nettles and manure.
If you water "little and often" this water does not penetrate the soil very deep. As a result, the plant's root remain close to the surface. If you drench the soil, the water goes down deep, encouraging the roots to go deep, where they can find nutrients.

Overwatering can leach the nutrients out of the soil. Hence an infrequent soak.

amandstu

What about heavy rain ? Is that a consideration when it comes to (re) applying fertilizer in the garden or on farms?

I have never heard it mentioned.