Just over a month ago now (a week or so late), I planted this season’s seed potatoes. They are already up to the stage where they need hilling up, so this morning, before work (dressed very inappropriately in skirt and stockings) I tipped a couple of buckets of compost around them. Job done.
I have just a dozen potatoes, of a couple of varieties, scattered around my garden. Each one will yield 1 to 2 kilos of spuds, depending on how diligent I am about hilling them up, over a couple of months. If I am willing to dedicate another couple of buckets of compost to each plant in another couple of weeks, and the weather doesn’t heat up too fast, I should get the top end of that yield. That’s plenty for us, more than enough carbohydrates really, but home grown new potatoes are such a delicacy!
These will be ready to start harvesting by bandicooting (stealing spuds from under the mulch without uprooting the whole plant) by around the end of October. By November the plant will have flowered and died back and I will dig up the last of the crop and use the compost hill to mulch the area ready for zucchini or something else that likes lots of compost. I will plant another round of spuds in Autumn, in a different spot to avoid disease build up and spread around the compost bounty. These later ones will yield slightly higher as we head into cooler nights in their bearing season.
We are trying potatoes this year… going to put them in soon, and hope a late Spring frost doesn’t knock them around!
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who occasionally gardens in inappropriate dress! 🙂
Unfortuantely I didn’t get my potatoes planted until early November, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll still get a decent crop. I’m growing them in pots and hilled them up last week. I’ve discovered that a few of the leaves lower down on the stem that were partially covered when I hilled them up have turned yellow. Do you know whether this is normal? Any advice would be appreciated!
Hi Danielle, the leaves are just light deprived by the sound of it, and that’s fine. It’s cool nights you want, to get them to set spuds. You might be lucky.
Thanks for your response, Linda! For the most part, the weather has been unseasonably cool in Perth so far this Summer, so I guess we’ll see. I’ve never grown potatoes before, so even if I only end up with a few, I’ll be happy!