A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 New potatoes for xmas

Ive just been looking through some seed catalouges, and found that there selling seed potatoes to put in the ground about now, so you can have new potatoes around xmas.
ive just brought some spuds home, and im thinking about planting some in buckets.
and putting them in the greenhouse.
has anyone tried this yet?

I haven't.

Seriously though...good luck, and let us how it turns out.

I've never Tried it Mark, but good luck with them!

How large are the buckets?
If they're too small, I don't think they'll be able to grow...

I'll bet it would work if the buckets are large enough and you use that tire method we've read about in this forum.
Can't hurt to try and might be fun !
Remember, just some good butter and a sprinkle of salt !

If it rains tommorow, im in the greenhouse then!
ive got some Arron pilot with sprouts on, and some buckets

It'll be fun - and keep us posted !

just hope it doesnt freeze to hard

Will the greenhouse be warm enough?
I wonder if you could surround the buckets with straw or even a blanket or something?

Sounds Good let us know how it turns out!!

Cant wait to hear how it turns out!!

yes the greenhouse will be warm enough, ive got a heater in there
im not going to use it unless it freezes hard though!

Oh ! LOL ! I didn't know they're heated ! You must have had a good laugh at the blanket and straw suggestion !

No i didnt
you wasnt to know i had a heated greenhouse!
ive often been out there late at night with the news papers, just to tuck em in at night

LOL !
Are you growing flowers or anything else in the greenhouse? Lettuces?
Just thought of something - my ex-husband lives in Derbyshire. Do you know where that is?

all ive got in the greenhouse is toms, peppers, and cucumbers.
there all starting to come to an end,
once there gone i usualy leave it empty until feb, then it all starts again....

ive been to derby a few times for auctions, not been for about ten years though!

Thanks for answering about Derbyshire. Over here, the word looks as though it would be pronounced "Dur - bee - shy - ur".
But I was told that it is correctly said "DAR - buh - sheer".
Right or wrong? (I'm Californian and do not speak English).

Try Dar bee sheer
say it loud!
thats why english is so hard to learn, the person who invented it had no idea how to spell

Thanks ! Good one !
You do realize of course that your English American cousins do not speak our mother tongue....

The trick to growing potato's in a bucket is the soil.I recommend soilless compost (it is the lightest stuff I have available to me and does not compact).If you use regular soil,it will get rock hard after a few waterings.I grow stuff in big tree buckets all the time and I have over 60 foot of windowboxes,so I have to be up on my container gardening.I can go out and stick my hand in under the plant and steal new potato's with no effort,the soil is so loose.

Hey Mark,
I saw a thing in an organic gardening book once, where they planted potato slips in nothing but straw, in trash cans. When it was time to harvest, they just tipped the whole thing upside down and picked out the 'taters!
Your bucket thing might work the same way!

Hi Mark,
Two years ago I had a go at xmas spuds,I used buckets and planted them deep, used polystyrene and newspaper.I didnt get a massive crop, but I did eat home grown spuds on Christmas Day.Good Luck let me know how they grow.

Glenda, i didnt get them in, wish i had because the greenhouse is empty now.

You can raise potato's in straw but mice may move in also. You can start the potato's (let them green up and then carefully cut up without breaking the emerging stems) if you want to still try it.I think they call it chitting.