Should potatoes grow this large?

[DrPhill]

Just over 36 ounces.....

Yeah, not even close to the record - but the largest that I have grown and I was not even trying.

 

[gregmcateer]

That's large
If you turn picture 90 degrees anti-clockwise it becomes a weird face

 

[Harbo]

Looks big to me - what variety is it?

Rod

 

[Bm101]

That's large
If you turn picture 90 degrees anti-clockwise it becomes a weird face

Hmmmm. Think you migggght be onto something there.... lets try.... Woooah! :shock:

Who knew?!? If I remember from the film Paul was a good 9 Inches too.

I'd start by looking for crash debris among the Brassicas. You could be onto summat here!

 

[transatlantic]

Even more odd is that if you look closely, it has a mark that looks a bit like Nigel Farage????

 

[DrPhill]

Looks big to me - what variety is it?

Sarpo Mira - and it is blight resistant. The tomatoes next to the potatoes had a bad attack of blight starting last weekend. The potato plants were mostly clear of the blight, but I decided it was time to tidy up.

 

[DrPhill]

Even more odd is that if you look closely, it has a mark that looks a bit like Nigel Farage????

Well spotted - I cant swallow that - it would certainly disagree with me.

 

[rafezetter]

On a related note as I've been known to grow potatoes, a lady friend of mine asked me if I knew where to buy "jacket potato seeds" for her new allotment - took me several minutes to stop laughing to explain where jacket potatoes come from.

 

[graduate_owner]

Well it beats any of mine, I had blight AGAIN this year. Many of the potatoes I dug up were about the same size as the seed potatoes I planted. My onion sets ended up about golfball size, and I had 3 courgettes. What a cr@p year.

K

 

[DrPhill]

Well it beats any of mine, I had blight AGAIN this year. Many of the potatoes I dug up were about the same size as the seed potatoes I planted. My onion sets ended up about golfball size, and I had 3 courgettes. What a cr@p year.

K

I feel for you - our soil is sandy so the drought was a real pain. Small shallot crop, couldnt get the onions or leeks started on time. Mice nibbled the beetroots (probably for water). Carrots were small, the sweetcorn did not fill out properly......

I did get a reasonable tattie yield, and the tomatoes were good. The apples and pears did well, as did the currants (red, white, black) and the wineberries. We had a few blueberries, and the grapes did well.

There is always next year.

I grow blight resistant varieties since I live in the warm damp west. Maybe you should do the same. It does make a difference - especially for main crop potatoes. Earlies and second earlies usually come out before the blight gets here. Maybe you should try these.

 

[Bm101]

Not a lot of luck here either if it makes you feel better Grad. Don't grow a huge amount these days but it was a dire crop all round. The only exception was the blueberries and like a fool I forgot to net them before going on holiday. Blackbirds had a fantastic two week feast. #-o
+1 for blight resistant spuds as Dr Phil says.

 

[Doug B]

The potatoes this year have been all over the place, my early Pentland Javelin were great, my mids Marfona caught all the rain we got May/June time & were huge only problem being the tubers grew too quickly they collapsed in the middle & rot started from the inside.
My first lates Picasso got blight very badly leading to around half the yield I'd have expected, my late lates Sapa Mira are still in the ground. Although blight resistant they have been affected slightly by blight & had started to die back but recent rain & warm temperatures have lead to re-growth so I imagine they will be very large tubers when I eventually lift them.


That said the Parsnips are huge & as I prefer those to potatoes it's no great loss, also the Butter nut squash are the size of pumpkins so it'll be soup rather than stew this winter .

 

[Benchwayze]

Thanks for this thread. I was just wondering what I could have for tea today. I think I'll bake a nice Maris Piper, and serve with some tuna mayo and grated cheese (And salad of course!)

 

[DrPhill]

Thanks for this thread. I was just wondering what I could have for tea today. I think I'll bake a nice Maris Piper, and serve with some tuna mayo and grated cheese (And salad of course!)

=D> Tasty. But not a 36oz one.......... surely?

 

[Doug B]

Bagged up my Sarpo Mira today they've certainly made some large potatoes,

The front bag are for baked potatoes which taste great as I tried my first Sarpo Mira jacket potato this afternoon

It took 20 minutes on full power to microwave until soft enough to put in the oven to crisp up the skin :shock:

 

[DrPhill]

Looks like a good yield with some fine bakers in there.

Sarpo Mira produce a good yield and resist the blight so they can be left in late to make the most of the last bits of sun. I have already ordered mine for next year.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Apparently, tomatoes and spuds are closely related, and get the same blight. We gave up on spuds this year, as we have a tiny veg plot, and blight and wireworm were winning - my other half (head gardener) felt the soil needed a change. She put in late-fruiting raspberry canes instead last year, and they cropped fairly well this year.

The tomatoes got blight, but it didn't seem to bother them much. Pretty good crop from one growbag (3 plants, around 4lbs of toms). I've got the growbag on a stand about 15" off the ground and it definitely helps.

I'm going back to spraying copper-based fungicide (is it a fungus?) next year. Apparently you can't treat blight in the plant, but you can kill it on surfaces (including leaves) before it gets established. I'm not convinced it works but it seems to be all that's on offer.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I grew tomatoes in the ground in the greenhouse, which I always found much easier and better than bags. I found the best way to minimise blight was to absolutely saturate everything from roof down once every two or three weeks, then open windows and allow the air and ground surface to dry. When the plants started to wilt I repeated the procedure. This was on good very moisture retentive soil, and the worst that happened was I'd get a handful of tomatoes split after every watering - so I just cooked with them. So long as I did this this I got no blight. I grew "Shirley"s one year and had a four and a half pound truss.

 

[Eric The Viking]

I found the best way to minimise blight was to absolutely saturate everything from roof down once every two or three weeks, then open windows and allow the air and ground surface to dry.

Do you mean just watering and not spraying with copper-based anything? If so, it would be wonderful for us, but we don't even have room for a cold frame, never mind a greenhouse.

The biggest problem I think we have with the growbag is that the stand has very little support for the growing trusses presently. I put an extra-heavy rail at the back to take holes for canes or whatever, but never finished it (the "customer" was getting antsy about the time it was taking). I think this winter I'll finish that bit so there's a good frame for support for next year.

I grew "Shirley"s one year and had a four and a half pound truss.

Smug person!

Seriously, it still amazes me how productive a really small plot can be. I can't claim any credit for that, except making the compost bins. I drink a lot of coffee, and the grounds, plus grass cuttings, kitchen "waste" and clippings generally seem to compost really well. If you count the compost as productive use, we have almost no food waste at all.

I have some difficulty understanding the keen gardener opposite us, who puts out her big green wheelie-bin for the dustman every fortnight, usually full of mowings etc. What a waste! And I'd guess she has to add-back a lot of nitrogen, etc. On Thursday last, I even saw a commercial firm park their van outside and whip round the lawn (not much bigger than ours) with a sprayer, which I assume was fertilizer (that lawn has no visible weeds!). It does look nice, but it reminds me vaguely of buying furniture from Ikea* - quick and easy, but you know deep down it's not "right".

E.

*guilty secret I guess - have kids, need cheap, disposable furnishings, at least for a while.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Yes, just water. Unfortunately if you're growing outside you're at the mercy of everything windblown - up on our allotments only one person this year had success with tomatoes, blight wiped out everyone else's and their potatoes.