One Potato, two potato, three potato, four…

Today I was mostly planting my potato tubers which have been chitting on the spare bedroom windowsill since 24th February. I have chosen 2 varieties this year, the first is the classic new potato ‘charlotte’ which is reliable and tasty and I think you can’t beat its taste when put with butter and mint. This variety takes 12 – 16 weeks to grow so I will be harvesting between 21st June and July 20th 2008.

The second variety I have chosen is Lady Christl, which I haven’t tried before. It is an extra early and is a well flavored variety and I chose it as it is ready to eat in 10 weeks which is 7th June 2008.

I have planted 5 tubers in each pot. I have 2 pots of Charlotte and 3 pots of Lady Christl.

Please click on this link if you would like to know How To Grow Potato’s In Pots.

Click here to find out how my potatoes grew last year and what type of harvest I had.

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This post has now moved to my new site iGrowVeg.com.
Please view the new post on the link below:

• One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four

Week 6 – 22.03.08 The Wind, Rain and Snow of Spring

Last week we endured the gale force winds and heavy rains, of which my mini greenhouse door snapped under the force of the wind and is currently being propped up. The heavy rain however did seem to help my peas, broad beans and cabbages put on a spurt of growth. I did manage to transplant a few of the tomato and calabrese seedlings that survived the onslaught of the weather and my clumsy handling.

I also couldn’t wait and sowed the rest of my tomato seeds last week and bought some more cucumber seeds (variety: marketmore) and sowed them as well.
Somehow in the wind I managed to tip up my tray of pepper seedlings, however I have saved most of them and sowed some more just in case the current ones don’t survive!

This weekend the wintery weather has continued with heavy snow showers here in Essex, it did settle briefly on my broad beans and then turned to slush.

Update on Raised Beds on Week 6

Week 4 Plot Report – Bumper seed sowing underway

Saturday 8th March and my bumper Seed Sowing Master Plan 2008 has been put into action by sowing the following into my back garden plots:-

Week 4 (08.03.08) Mini Greenhouse seedlings progress and casulties

I had a slight accident with my seedlings in the modules in the mini greenhouse. I was reading a forum message on GYO Grapevine about encouraging your seedlings to grow 2 true pairs of leaves (so you can transplant them) as mine still only have their 1st pair of leaves. It said if you put a piece of white card behind your seedlings it can bounce the light towards them, which can only be a good thing.

However I improvised as I didn’t have any white card and opted for the flat underside of my polystyrene pot tray which I propped up behind the seed tray. It seemed ok until yesterday when I realised I couldn’t actually see my seedings anymore as they were underneath the tray, it had toppled over and flattened my seedlings!

However I think I may be able to salvage most tomato and 1 cucumber seeding and luckily my pepper seeds are only just breaking the surface so they have been saved from bended stems. The calabrese seedlings had gone a bit leggy so I think I will scrap them and try again with another batch anyway.

Here’s a current picture of the worse for wear looking seedlings:
(See below for closeup pictures)

4 Weeks from seed – Radishes have appeared later than expected

It is very interesting learning about how temperature and light levels affect the growth of seeds at this time of the year. As I have been working on my plot since last April I can now compare times of sowings and emergence of seedlings at different times of the year.

For example Radish seedlings.

4 Weeks Growth (April – May 07)

4 Weeks Growth (Feb – March 08)