Spuds harvested

Spuds earthed up

Spuds Planted

I prepared the ground by digging in some home made compost. I took off some of the sprouty bits leaving one spout on each potato, and put some compost in each hole before planting. Planted 4 rows of 3 in the greenhouse bed and the wisteria bed. Watered them in afterwards. Put some netting around the beds to try to keep the foxes off.

Chitting

Bought the seed potatoes today - Arran Pilot. I think the potato 3rd from the left on the top row is dead.

Batch 1 spuds harvested

Spuds earthed up

A fox repeatedly dug up one of the spuds in the greenhouse bed (the one right in the centre) so today I transplanted a growing rogue potato from the wisteria bed into the greenhouse bed as a replacement. Interested to see if it takes.

Potatoes planted

I planted the Arran Pilot potatoes today - they looked a bit shrivelled but I hope they'll be ok. I planted 3 rows in the greenhouse bed, and 4 in the large bed, each row having 3 spuds (with a couple of leftover ones in a 5th row). On each spud I took off the extra sprouty bits leaving only one on each. I dug a bag of manure into the greenhouse bed before planting the spuds, intending to do the same in the large bed, but I forgot and started planting the spuds in the large bed before I added the manure. I did put some home made compost in each hole for the spuds. I spread a bag of manure on top of the soil in the large bed after I planted the spuds there.

Chitting begun

Bought Arran Pilot again this year. Hope the crop is as good as 2017's. I'm a bit later in buying the seed potatoes this year, and they seem well advanced in the chitting process. May plant them earlier this year if the weather isn't too bad.

Spud update

Most of the shrivelled-up Arran Pilot seed potatoes that I planted at this year's second tranche on 10 July have come up. Today I filled the gaps with supermarket-bought spuds that I've been chitting for a while.

Potatoes harvested

Harvested the potatoes today - got an enormous crop, with some huge potatoes!

I planted the arran pilot potatoes that have been chitting since April? May? but they look all shrivelled and almost dead so I may have wasted my time. Gave them a good watering - hopefully they'll grow. I took off some of the sprouty bits, leaving just one sprout on each spud.

Chitting commenced

Seed potatoes planted

I planted 3 rows of 5 spuds in the greenhouse bed and, because that left only 10 spuds, 4 rows in the Wisteria bed containing 2, 3, 2, 3 spuds.

Chitting begun

I bought Arran Pilot this time.