Christmas new potatoes

[Scribbler]

Can someone remind me when these go in please? Seem to remember September maybe. I did Carlingford a couple of years ago and they were great little spuds.

[corynsboy]

In 2008 we planted our Christmas potatoes in mid August and dug them up the day before Christmas Eve (23rd).  Planting anytime in August would be good I guess.  I think we planted Cara.  I'm not certain.

I was confident that they would be fine but better to leave a day or two for M&S to step into the breach in case of disaster!

For anyone new to this Christmas potato punt you get smaller potatoes and a fewer per plant so plant more plants than you think you'll need.  Feed well and earth up well to protect them from the cold earth.  Then to be sure go have a quiet chat with your god/s about arranging and nice mild autumn.

[Scribbler]

Mine will be going in a cut-down plastic dustbin, somewhere near the house if Mrs Scribbler will permit!

[Yorkie]

Last year Iain said they should go in in August.

[DD.]

You don't argue with Iain when it comes to spuds!

[Iain@JBA]

Thanks folks.
The further south you are the later you could plant them.
I think mid August is the latest you should plant them but you can plant between July and mid August.
The idea is to get some fresh new sized potatoes to eat for your Christmas.

[Livinhope]

I have never tried growing potatoes for Christmas.  Do I need special seed potatoes, if so which variety and can they be bought now?  Would it be worth trying King Edwards which have started chitting in the bag?

[solway cropper]

Iain sells them.

Just go to his site JBA seed potatoes

[white westie]

Hello i was going to save some of my charlotte new pots to sow for seed for Christmas,but i will have a look at iains site now thankyou.

[Maccbean]

I'd really like to plant some Christmas potatoes, but I want a variety suitable for proper roasties.  I can't work out from Ian's site if any are suitable, can anyone help?

[Kristen]

Hello i was going to save some of my charlotte new pots to sow for seed for Christmas

They need (from memory) 60 days "rest" to break the dormancy, so you have to lift very early to have them ready for mid August planting.

I've ordered mine from JBA.  2kg which I hope is enough for 8 tubs (4 x 3 tubers and 4 x 4 tubers)

[mumofstig]

I'd really like to plant some Christmas potatoes, but I want a variety suitable for proper roasties.  I can't work out from Ian's site if any are suitable, can anyone help?

The point of growing christmas potatoes is to grow small, new potatoes at a time of year when they are not usually available. For proper roasties just use some normal maincrop potatoes from store 

[Maccbean]

Right, well I don't have any maincrop!  TBH, I don't really understand all the potato terms such as earlies, second earlies etc etc yet.   .  Does that mean it's too late for me to grow maincrop for Christmas?

[mumofstig]

Early 'new' potatoes take 10/12 weeks growing,
2nd earlies which can be harvested small, like new potatoes at about 12 weeks or left till they die down when they will be bigger, 
maincrop which are normal 'supermarket bag' sized and take 20 weeks or more.

You can see that the only potatoes that stand a chance of cropping before winter frosts are earlies. Sorry 

[Maccbean]

So, it's about 20 weeks to Christmas.  What about if I grew them in a pot and protected them from the frost, say put them in a greenhouse or similar?