Anyone with an allotment?

But a waste of space. For ends up being a golf ball sized amount of food. Love them

Anyone ever tested their soil Ph? Worthwhile?

Thanks mate, I appreciate that.

Lste night watering plan tonight, anyone else doing similar? Packing headtorch & bike lights.

I dropped by after work. Most stuff looked ok from the drenching it got yesterday. Was hot, but so much easier with a water trough at the bottom of my plot instead of ~30 meters away.

Lifted 4/5 early potatoes from the ground yesterday. Same variety as some I’ve done in pots. The rows definitely provided more in terms of weight (annoyingly I didn’t do a direct comparison) but a bit of scab and slug damage to most of them, also a fair amount more work to get them out of the ground.

In an annoyingly unscientific oversight, I’ve not got a pot and row of the same early variety in the same location ( I have when it comes to maincrop, so will compare then) So direct comparisons at this point are hard to make.

The ant-nest issue I’ve had with the pots is really annoying me at the moment and I’m glad to have some in the ground as well so the whole crop doesn’t get totally ruined. However at the moment it looks like 4 pots (8 potatoes) are ants nests. The old compost bags I use haven’t been affected which is encouraging but ants are definitely something to think about next year.

I’ll definitely give them a go again next year with some adjustments. But I’m not 100% converted to growing potatoes in pots just yet.

Bit parched but glorious is Walthamstow this afternoon.
Made potato salad with some spuds that had popped up from last year and getting in the way along with a tomato and cucumber salsa.
Our first harvest dinner of the year :)

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Nice!

I grabbed some Spring Onions just now whils givinv everything a soak. When the cycling breeze makes you warmer at 10pm it's a weird feeling.

Polytunnel Tomatoes might not survive another hotter day, leaf crisp already.

I’m going every other night. It’s takes about an hour to properly drench everything, but it’s still bone dry when I next go down

Can you shade cloth the tunnel? The building site green netting is good if there’s any lying around

Useful to know, it's a huge communal one though so will need alot of cover! I could mention to committee...

5+ hours of solid rain last night! Amazing!

First tub of 8 emptied yesterday evening.
'Ratte' ...
5 chitted tubers in 45 litre tubs planted 9th April 2022.

Clean and damage free .
2.043 kg

1 down 7 to go ...

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Lovely! Ratte are on my list of spuds I'd like to try.

Ratte are on my list of spuds I'd like to try.

You must !

been described as a "a boutique potato" 🙄

Now I’ve definitely got to grow them.

Just googled, they're £2.25 for 500g in waitrose! Close to a tenner's worth there for you. Can I afford not to!?!?

How slug resistant are they?

Slugs seems to get everything in our allotment

So 8 tubs potentially £80 😃

How slug resistant are they?

Never had any slug damage but then I've never grown them directly in the ground - no dig/potato bags/tubs only over the past 4 years.

This year I’ve grown potatoes in 20L felt bags.

This year I’ve grown potatoes in 20L felt bags.

And how did that go ?

What's your method for the tubs? Done spuds in them for the first time this year and I've been happy with some of my results but looks like about 4 have had ants make nests in them and going by the first one I turned out, totally ruined the crop :(

I’ve grown ratte in the ground before. No major slug issues with them but pretty small yields (which is why they’re spenny in Waitrose :)
Moved to Pink Firs as I’ve found they crop better for me