Your comments and tips

08 Jan 11, dave (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

my potato vines are growing berrys that look like tiny tomatoes about the size of a marble is this normal ?

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14 Jan 11, Grace (Australia - temperate climate)

Yes this is normal. They are not edible, so pick them off to encourage the plant to dedicate it's energy into producing tubers.

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31 Dec 10, Di Dixon (Australia - temperate climate)

Can you please let me know if English New Jersey Potatoes can be grown here in Australia & if yes where can I get some from? Cheers Di

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24 Oct 11, Julia (Australia - temperate climate)

Di - did you ever grow any New Jersey potatoes? I'm in Sydney and I'd love to try and grow some. Thanks so much.

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08 Nov 10, Jan (Australia - arid climate)

This is my second year at growing potatoes near Kalgoorlie. Although it gets hot quickly as long as you keep the water up to them they seem to thrive. All I added last year was some blood and bone and a bit of hay for mounding them up. I've got heavy red loam ground here and the first year I grew enormous potatoes but many were derformed from the rocks in the ground. This year I decided to build a raised bed and use a mix of the red loam, potting compost and hay. I didnt plant till late September because of late frosts but already plants are really high and flowering. Unfortunately I didnt keep up with mounding them up as quickly as I should have and maybe they will not produce as many spuds because of this. I have read that you have to keep mounding them so that only one inch of stem is out of the ground. If the main stem becomes too long and exposed to the sun it no longer grows side shoots and spuds - is this true?

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04 Sep 10, Mark Thornton (Australia - temperate climate)

We live on the NSW south coast. As we are new to gardening, the question is, Can we produce a year around crop of potatoes? If so, which varieties do you plant when?

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30 Oct 11, Bruce (Australia - temperate climate)

You should be able to grow almost any variety of spuds all year so long as you don't have frosts.

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02 Sep 10, Cygnetian (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

Hi, I'm in country Southern Tasmania and have never grown potatoes before. Does anyone know whether the plants need to be fenced off from the wildlife? (Here we have mostly possums and paddemelons.) Thanks!

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23 Nov 10, Lucky Phil (Australia - temperate climate)

It would be better to fence them off. We have a hen who likes to dig for worms, so we fenced off our potato patch. The possums will probably eat the leaves, and other wildlife may dig the freshly turned soil for worms. We have possum trouble with one of our roses.

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29 Dec 10, Karl (Australia - temperate climate)

I live in country Northeast Tassie and have sucessfully grown potatos without fencing them off from wildlife such as possums an pademelons. In fact spotlighting at night I have never seen any sign of wildlife amongst my spuds, nor any browsing damage done to the foliage. I have noticed that snakes seem to particularly enjoy slithering amongst the crop.

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