I wonder why?

I manured the ground before planting, but although the earlies
are fairly good the maincrop are quite poor, relatively speaking.

--
Alan

Reply to alan (dot) holmes27 (at) virgin (dot) net

On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 08:06:12 GMT, "Alan Holmes"
wrote:


I wonder why?

I manured the ground before planting, but although the earlies
are fairly good the maincrop are quite poor, relatively speaking.

Possibly the dry weather. My soil is so dry I cannot easily dig my
potatoes.

Pam in Bristol

In article , Pam Moore
writes
On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 08:06:12 GMT, "Alan Holmes"
wrote:


I wonder why?

I manured the ground before planting, but although the earlies
are fairly good the maincrop are quite poor, relatively speaking.

Possibly the dry weather.

What dry weather?
;-)

--
Kay - posting from Yorkshire

On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 13:01:47 +0100, Kay
wrote:

In article , Pam Moore
writes
On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 08:06:12 GMT, "Alan Holmes"
wrote:


I wonder why?

I manured the ground before planting, but although the earlies
are fairly good the maincrop are quite poor, relatively speaking.

Possibly the dry weather.

What dry weather?
;-)

Well, here we are desperately in need of rain. Everything is
suffering. All my potato tops have died off.
Sorry, didn't notice the OP's locality.
If you can send some this way Kay I'd be delighted! Forgot some places
have been wetter than here.

Pam in Bristol

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 08:06:12 GMT, "Alan Holmes"
wrote:


I wonder why?

I manured the ground before planting, but although the earlies
are fairly good the maincrop are quite poor, relatively speaking.

Possibly the dry weather. My soil is so dry I cannot easily dig my
potatoes.

Lucky you! Here in Leicestershire the ground is soaking and has been almost
all summer.

My potato crop is down too, but in my case it's due to them being riddled
with keel slugs, which seem to have reproduced in vast numbers in the wet
soil!

Neil.

"Neil Tonks" wrote in message
...

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 08:06:12 GMT, "Alan Holmes"
wrote:


I wonder why?

I manured the ground before planting, but although the earlies
are fairly good the maincrop are quite poor, relatively speaking.

Possibly the dry weather. My soil is so dry I cannot easily dig my
potatoes.

Lucky you! Here in Leicestershire the ground is soaking and has been
almost all summer.

My potato crop is down too, but in my case it's due to them being
riddled with keel slugs, which seem to have reproduced in vast
numbers in the wet soil!

Neil.

Ours look OK but the few I've lifted have a very strange texture,
floury on the outside and falling apart on cooking (a new variety -
waiting to see what the more familiar ones are like). The dry season
has made blight control possible. The dry weather and Nemaslug seem to
have minimised slug damage.
Last August 6.8 inches of rain, this August 2 inches.
--
Rod

My real address is rodtheweedygardeneratmyweedyisp
Just remove the weedy bits
and transplant the appropriate symbol at.

On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 22:10:38 +0100, "Rod Craddock"
wrote:

"Neil Tonks" wrote in message
...

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 08:06:12 GMT, "Alan Holmes"
wrote:


I wonder why?

I manured the ground before planting, but although the earlies
are fairly good the maincrop are quite poor, relatively speaking.

Possibly the dry weather. My soil is so dry I cannot easily dig my
potatoes.

Lucky you! Here in Leicestershire the ground is soaking and has been
almost all summer.

My potato crop is down too, but in my case it's due to them being
riddled with keel slugs, which seem to have reproduced in vast
numbers in the wet soil!

Neil.

Ours look OK but the few I've lifted have a very strange texture,
floury on the outside and falling apart on cooking (a new variety -
waiting to see what the more familiar ones are like). The dry season
has made blight control possible. The dry weather and Nemaslug seem to
have minimised slug damage.
Last August 6.8 inches of rain, this August 2 inches.

Is there something in the growing that makes them fall apart on
cooking? I have had it happen with newly dug Charlotte, Desiree and
another. Does it happen just when they are very new? Most
frustrating.

Pam in Bristol

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 22:10:38 +0100, "Rod Craddock"
wrote:

"Neil Tonks" wrote in message
...

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 08:06:12 GMT, "Alan Holmes"
wrote:


I wonder why?

I manured the ground before planting, but although the earlies
are fairly good the maincrop are quite poor, relatively speaking.

Possibly the dry weather. My soil is so dry I cannot easily dig my
potatoes.

Lucky you! Here in Leicestershire the ground is soaking and has been
almost all summer.

My potato crop is down too, but in my case it's due to them being
riddled with keel slugs, which seem to have reproduced in vast
numbers in the wet soil!

Neil.

Ours look OK but the few I've lifted have a very strange texture,
floury on the outside and falling apart on cooking (a new variety -
waiting to see what the more familiar ones are like). The dry season
has made blight control possible. The dry weather and Nemaslug seem to
have minimised slug damage.
Last August 6.8 inches of rain, this August 2 inches.

Is there something in the growing that makes them fall apart on
cooking? I have had it happen with newly dug Charlotte, Desiree and
another. Does it happen just when they are very new? Most
frustrating.

Pam in Bristol

It's at least partlially to do with the variety. Of those I've dug so far,
Arran Pilot and Nadine produced average crops but cooked brilliantly, with
no disintegration. On the other hand the free 5 tubers of 'pixie' supplied
by Marshalls this year, grown in exactly the same conditions, produced a big
crop but they totally disintegrated on boiling (the rest made great chips,
though!)

Neil.

"Neil Tonks" wrote in message
...
It's at least partlially to do with the variety. Of those I've dug
so far, Arran Pilot and Nadine produced average crops but cooked
brilliantly, with no disintegration. On the other hand the free 5
tubers of 'pixie' supplied by Marshalls this year, grown in exactly
the same conditions, produced a big crop but they totally
disintegrated on boiling (the rest made great chips, though!)

We've had the problem with all our early outdoor crop including
Juliette which was absolutely beautiful in the greenhouse and horrible
outdoors. Also Charlotte which was great last year was very bad (might
be Potato cyst nematode, premature loss of haulm and patchy bed, sadly
we'd cleared them and destroyed any evidence before I thought of
looking for PCN) We have a lot of the Marshall trial 'Pixie' because
they sent a lot because we bought a lot of spuds from them. Like Neil
says it looks fantastic, moderate to good yield but cooking quality
very poor, though we've not tried chips with it yet - roasted and
baked OK if you like floury spuds. We did irrigate the crop but
possibly not enough. I'm saying this in view of the poor outdoor crops
compared with the ones grown in more controlled conditions.
--
Rod

My real address is rodtheweedygardeneratmyweedyisp
Just remove the weedy bits
and transplant the appropriate symbol at.

On Thu, 1 Sep 2005 07:45:48 +0000 (UTC), jane
wrote:

I find floury ones disintegrate faster anyway and I suspect it's why
floury ones make better mash - you don't have a lot of choice! A lot
of mine this year have fallen too; I reckon it's the lack of water
which has proportionally increased the potato dry matter content so as
soon as you boil them, the cells swell and the spud explodes

Good thinking Jane. Mine soil has been the driest ever so I guess that
is the problem.

Pam in Bristol