Never known Christmas spuds to flower 4 wks after planting, spring planted one's don't flower that soon...fair to say that's a tab bit unusual. Could be due to the weather...how tall is the foilage, can you post some pictures.
Frstly your containers are to shallow to produce a reasonable crop.
New spuds grow off the stem of the growing foilage and if most of the foilage is above the level of the soil you won't get many spuds, a deeper pot means you are earthing up for longer and the plant takes longer to reach the surface or the point were it wants to flower . The plant in August will think due to the heat and light it needs to reproduce so it will flower, earthing up slows down this process because the plant hasn't produced enough foilage above the ground to think it's being threatened.
Put it down to experience, you can't stop them flowering, wait for the foilage to die back then pick your spuds. Plant in deeper pots next year or plant a little later and see how near Christmas you get this is third time lucky for me.
Well, it's my first time, and saw other people on other websites had used similar tubs and had sucess, so gave them a go. I have put others straight in the ground, and some in empty growbags. Those are just two that have flowered. None of the others have, so I may still get spuds!!
And the seed potatoes only cost me 50p I think, so not lost a lot. This is what I love about gardening. Trial and error, and always learning!
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Mine have started flowering now, after only 4 weeks? Is this normal? And what do I do now? Just leave them be?
These were them Sunday Zoomer, but I only noticed the flowers today. (ignore the mattress in the background! LOL It's gone now
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Frstly your containers are to shallow to produce a reasonable crop.
New spuds grow off the stem of the growing foilage and if most of the foilage is above the level of the soil you won't get many spuds, a deeper pot means you are earthing up for longer and the plant takes longer to reach the surface or the point were it wants to flower . The plant in August will think due to the heat and light it needs to reproduce so it will flower, earthing up slows down this process because the plant hasn't produced enough foilage above the ground to think it's being threatened.
Put it down to experience, you can't stop them flowering, wait for the foilage to die back then pick your spuds. Plant in deeper pots next year or plant a little later and see how near Christmas you get this is third time lucky for me
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Other poster may have a different view.
Well, it's my first time, and saw other people on other websites had used similar tubs and had sucess, so gave them a go. I have put others straight in the ground, and some in empty growbags. Those are just two that have flowered. None of the others have, so I may still get spuds!!
And the seed potatoes only cost me 50p I think, so not lost a lot. This is what I love about gardening. Trial and error, and always learning!
Thanks for your response!