Second earlies potato varieties

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
There's two threads running on people growing small areas of spuds now. Are you all hunkering down for the apocalypse? Planting them by hand (with the help of a ridger) isn't too bad, but digging them all up by hand is a massive pain in the arse.

The answer to your question is yes. My boss is planning for a much more serious contingency regarding self sufficiency. I do hope he’s overreacting. I don’t relish the prospect of having to guard the crop 24 hours/day with a gun if we should get to that state of affairs.
 

bitwrx

Member
The answer to your question is yes. My boss is planning for a much more serious contingency regarding self sufficiency. I do hope he’s overreacting. I don’t relish the prospect of having to guard the crop 24 hours/day with a gun if we should get to that state of affairs.
I'll do a shift for you. And I definitely won't steal any... :ROFLMAO:
 

tw15

Member
Location
DORSET
Brisel think I know where a planter etc are sat in a shed not far from you got a feeling all the kit is there and he is the sort of chap that would help anyone .
 

Bogweevil

Member
Hard to beat British Queens for flavour in the second early slot .
Dont know how the would cope under severe blight pressure. You might be busy with the bluestone and washing soda or maybe as bogweevil suggested mancozeb ?? Ah them were the days when we were young and innocent " creaming " the maneb before adding the bucket of cream to the spray tank. Cost feck all and as long as you kept the intervals short was very effective .

Cu sulphate and washing soda was Burgundy Mixture, easier to make than Bordeaux mix.

As neither lime, nor washing soda and Cu sulphate are sold as pesticides it is legal to sell/buy.

However CRD speak thusly: All products used for the protection of plants in agriculture, horticulture, forestry, industrial or amenity situations, and home gardens must be authorised by the Chemicals Regulation Directorate (CRD), of the Health and Safety Executive, before they can be sold, distributed, stored or used in the UK.
 

e3120

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
You need some old Fergie kit, be ideal for 1 ac!!
Dad got his toys out today

IMG_20200405_102621.jpg
IMG_20200405_102604.jpg
 

einstein

Member
Location
Rutland
I'm doing a similar thing...but in a polytunnel and in pots. Growing in reused coir from my strawberry enterprise.
Focusing on earliness..I want to be lifting from mid may onwards selling at the same time as the strawbs
They appear to love coir..as strawbs and rasps do.
Last year I tried javelin,rocket,int kidney,swift,Charlotte,Nicola ,peer and dunluce. No clear winners...the swift were the earliest but the least flavour. The rocket yielded best. The Charlotte and Nicola both produced a nice potato...in fact im eating the last of them now.
This year I'm pinning my hopes on Anya. With some Winston and premier as well.
My aim is to produce something so tasty that the customer will want to come back for more.
I've rarely found this with shop bought new spuds .
Can anyone suggest a way to enhance the flavour.?
Also I can control the feed ec and ph..each pot is watered individually with a dripper system.. Can anyone suggest what the ideal levels might be?
 

Hampton

Member
BASIS
Location
Shropshire
The answer to your question is yes. My boss is planning for a much more serious contingency regarding self sufficiency. I do hope he’s overreacting. I don’t relish the prospect of having to guard the crop 24 hours/day with a gun if we should get to that state of affairs.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve let some land out for spuds this year and the the grower has cancelled one field as McCains don’t want the potatoes. They are obviously confident there won’t be shortages
 

bovrill

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
East Essexshire
I'm playing with the same idea here.
I've grown 1/4 acre in the past, and planting a few a week and digging the same isn't much of a chore.
Lots of family live off them, and The Aged Parents sell a few at the gate, along with my honey, and some other veg in season.
There's a couple of people locally have done similarly in the past, who are now calling it a day, and I'm quite tempted to up it to a couple of acres.
But suddenly a bit of mechanisation looks tempting!
On blight sprays, how effective would a bit of standard arable fungicide be, if some dastardly rascal (not me :angelic:) were to give them a squirt every now and then?
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
I’ve let some land out for spuds this year and the grower has cancelled one field as McCains don’t want the potatoes. They are obviously confident there won’t be shortages

McCains are major suppliers to MacDonalds, whose doors are closed until further notice. I've heard of a few farmers letting land for spuds that the grower does not now need as contracts have been cancelled. I do wonder where this demand will be fulfilled if we are free of restrictions in 6 months or so. I'd be tempted to take a speculative punt if I were a proper grower of spuds. What else are people going to eat? Whatever it is, it will be eaten at home IMO.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
I'm playing with the same idea here.
I've grown 1/4 acre in the past, and planting a few a week and digging the same isn't much of a chore.
Lots of family live off them, and The Aged Parents sell a few at the gate, along with my honey, and some other veg in season.
There's a couple of people locally have done similarly in the past, who are now calling it a day, and I'm quite tempted to up it to a couple of acres.
But suddenly a bit of mechanisation looks tempting!
On blight sprays, how effective would a bit of standard arable fungicide be, if some dastardly rascal (not me :angelic:) were to give them a squirt every now and then?

Theoretically speaking, triazoles are useless on Pythium diseases like blight. Blight is very different from septoria and rust. I'd be buying copper sulphate or the more mainstream blight products if I were doing that. ;)
 

Hampton

Member
BASIS
Location
Shropshire
McCains are major suppliers to MacDonalds, whose doors are closed until further notice. I've heard of a few farmers letting land for spuds that the grower does not now need as contracts have been cancelled. I do wonder where this demand will be fulfilled if we are free of restrictions in 6 months or so. I'd be tempted to take a speculative punt if I were a proper grower of spuds. What else are people going to eat? Whatever it is, it will be eaten at home IMO.
I thought the same
 

bovrill

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
East Essexshire
McCains are major suppliers to MacDonalds, whose doors are closed until further notice. I've heard of a few farmers letting land for spuds that the grower does not now need as contracts have been cancelled. I do wonder where this demand will be fulfilled if we are free of restrictions in 6 months or so. I'd be tempted to take a speculative punt if I were a proper grower of spuds. What else are people going to eat? Whatever it is, it will be eaten at home IMO.
There are some big volumes of potatoes being imported from Egypt and Israel at the moment. More than usual at this time of year.
Now, that could be because orders were placed a few weeks ago when there was stockpiling going on, and a potential shortage of rice/pasta/potatoes.
OR, a more cynical person might be tempted to think that someone is trying to give a depressed market a thorough hammering to reap their own benefits later.
 

Bogweevil

Member
I'm playing with the same idea here.
I've grown 1/4 acre in the past, and planting a few a week and digging the same isn't much of a chore.
Lots of family live off them, and The Aged Parents sell a few at the gate, along with my honey, and some other veg in season.
There's a couple of people locally have done similarly in the past, who are now calling it a day, and I'm quite tempted to up it to a couple of acres.
But suddenly a bit of mechanisation looks tempting!
On blight sprays, how effective would a bit of standard arable fungicide be, if some dastardly rascal (not me :angelic:) were to give them a squirt every now and then?

Quite a lot of resistance so multi-site is the way to go for small scale - mancozeb is cheap and some products approved for wheat so you need not be struck with unused stuff in your chem store).

Potassium phosphite (not phosphate) such as farmfos can help against late blight (which after all is a downy mildew), though obs it is not a fungicide but a plant tonic and therefore falls outside the scope of the pesticide regulations.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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