Potato Growing 2025

Flower buds spotted on the Charlotte’s! That’s 8 weeks since planting. I’ve been surprised at how much earthing-up they’ve needed. I suppose that’s part of the learning when doing something for the first time.

 

I have flowers on my first early spuds, Swift and Foremost. Charlotte's and others were planted much later so not long through the ground.

 

I've got flowers on a few self sown main crop ones.
I'm not sure that flowers actually have any connection as to what is underneath.

 

My fear is that they have taken the option of reproducing sexually rather than vegetatively, influenced by the dry spring conditions and/or the higher than average day-time temperatures. Its yet to be seen if these fears are valid or whether they have doubled down as it were. Although rain has now been received here, only a composite 22mm since February 15th, which is woefully insufficient. The advice not to irrigate until bloom is seen has not been strictly followed but one still has concerns regarding tuber formation. It has been resolved to wait a little longer before furtling , hoping that all is well. We shall see.

 

The standard reckoning for first earlys is there should be decent size tubers two-three weeks after flowering. Main crop much longer of course, if the green seed pods appear they should be removed , so the energy goes into the tubers. The exception is unless you're trying to breed a new cultivar.

 

I dont think we can actually make any conclusions without bringing into account its a non native plant and as such we need to know what the spring is usually like in the parts of S. America where they come from.
I'm sure I've seen flowers on main crop plants months before you would even consider digging them.
I always think the so called earlies are just potatoes dug before they have reached their full potential anyway.

 

@pete , Yes that's what I meant about main crop. They flower well before the tubers are a decent size.
There are differences between MOST early, mid and maincrop. These in the main being how long before they produce a crop, the eventual size of the tubers, some first earlies are never going to be much bigger than a large hens egg, no matter how long you leave them in. The top growth on earlies dies back sooner. The biggest differences tend to be the eventual size , the amount of dry matter, suitability for certain cooking methods, steam, boil bake, roast, chips etc. The final one is storage time In the right conditions maincrop will keep right up to when next year's first early spuds are ready, first and second early will always sprout and try to grow by March-April at the latest.
THE EXCEPTION is Jersey Royals, the variety is International kidney, they were bred as a main crop, if you leave them in the ground they produce large floury (in my view not particularly tasty) spuds. As Jersey Royals they are, as you say, simply harvested very early before they are mature. I suspect this cultivar was used from the time before all the modern "salad" cultivars were bred, and certainly before, artificial heat and lighting systems enabled "new" potatoes to be grown all year round.
You might guess, I've been growing spuds for more than 60 years and have experience of all of the above.

 

I've never had much luck growing decent early spuds, mostly they have just disintegrated during boiling regardless of the ones I've tried.
I'm buying jersey royals ATM and to be honest they are better than any I have tried growing over the years.

 

I am growing 1st/2nd earlies, as I am limited as I growing in containers. Someone told me a couple of years ago that main crop are no good in containers, the conversation came about as I mentioned I had a very poor crop of main crop, despite giving loads of fertilizers, I was proper peeved when I inspected my crop, is this correct that main crop is not good in a pot?

 

I've tried pink fir apple in pots two years running, even bought the so called special potato fertiliser and it really wasn't worth the effort.

Quite disappointing really, very small and lots were only just forming at the end of the season.
Watering was a problem, but even so one pot went down with early blight last year.

 

This is "Nemo" I'm not sure if it's a second early or maincrop. I'll be harvesting them from when it's possible to eat them as earlies though. A few are showing flowers

I also have a small patch of first earlies but they got frost damaged and set back, the nemo plants were more advanced and I guess less tender, so survived the frost with only some browned leaves

 

I emptied a pot of Anya yesterday because the growth was looking really sad - it seemed to have gone backwards despite heavy watering and was yellowing (blight?). Anyway the potatoes were tiny but gorgeous. Washed, steamed and with lots of Castle butter (two people had recommended it for new potatoes)...

 

Sounds like overwatering. Blight usually makes the foliage go black and thren shrivel.
I was very late putting my 2nd earlies in, Jazzy, so I am waiting awhile before I start furtling in the pots to see what I can find.
Home grown earlies are definitely something special.

 

Over watering @Goldenlily26 ? Possibly, but the pot was in a very sunny position, and because it was a fabric type pot, it dried out quite a lot. And my version of "heavy watering" is probably not very - I concentrate on my ornamentals as things like acacia drop dead if they get missed just once.
I'm glad you've described blight, as Google said black spots on yellowing leaves, which looked true.