stupid potato questions, advice needed please....

[ClareVoiant]

we chucked a baking potato (uncooked) in a pot in the garden (after watching Jamie Oliver), in the vain attempt to get more baking potatoes. anyways, we've been away for 2 weeks and its huge.

what do we do with it now? Do we feed it?

how will we know when the potatoes are ready?

will we just get one lot of potatoes from this plant, or is there a way to keep them coming?

All help greatly appreciated.

[misi]

potatoes have only one crop as you need to pull the plant up to get to the pots. you will know when ready as the flowers will die and the stems start to wilt and flop over. my grandad used to leave the pots in the ground till he needed them or until the end of november, whichever came first.
if you planted it earlier enough you may have many more pots than the one you put in, but if you only planted it recently, then you won't get much from it I am afraid. the easiest way to look though is to carefully push away the soil around the stems and see what you have got but you must replace the soil or any exposed pots will go green.

[ClareVoiant]

hi misi,

thanks for that. we've not had any flowers yet, so i guess its going to be a while yet. we had some shoots coming through and I've covered them up with fresh soil. is this correct? all help appreciated.

thanks

[missingtheaction]

if it's outside then like Misi says don't expect too much of it - there's not much time left this year. Don't push it too hard, just cover the stems a couple of times and then let it do its thing. It needs to stay damp - keep it watered! shouldn't be any need to feed it if it is in commercial compost.

Lovely to see things grow though

[ClareVoiant]

THanks misisngtheaction .

If we get a potato or 2 at the end of it then it will have been worthwhile i guess.

I cant imagine we'll get loads as its not in the worlds largest pot. Its been in the pot about a month to 6 weeks i guess, it was only a tiny plant before we went away.

will keep watering it and see how it goes. I guess we need to plant them out earlier next year

[missingtheaction]

traditionally you plant potatoes on St Patrick's day, although personally I feel this can be a bit early at least it's easy to remember

and farmers used to test whether the soil was ready for planting seed by baring their bum and sitting on it!

[misi]

the flowers are only just starting to come out on my king edwards so a bit of time left yet