Potato Worries

Tuesday was another day with sunny spells and some bits and pieces of snow in the wind. It was a cold day but certainly not in the same class as yesterday, however the overnight low did get down to -3.4°C outside and -2.9°C in the greenhouse.

That low overnight temperatures in the greenhouse gave me a little bit of concern regarding the seed potatoes that are chitting in there. They’re only protected by a couple of layers of fleece not much protection against the frost.

In the greenhouse in the sunshine was very pleasant indeed. The temperature was almost 20°C almost enough to convince me to start sowing some seeds. With overnight frosts predicted all week I decided better of it and checked out our seed potatoes under the fleece.

These first early Winston’s look to have survived the frost and are just starting to show signs of some sprouts. Good news that there’s no soft or blackened potatoes due to last nights low temperature. Just to be on the safe side I had another look under some more fleece at some maincrop Charlotte potatoes and fortunately these were fine too.

In the garden I spotted one lone pansy making an effort to flower. It’s certainly a bedraggled looking flower but looking more closely at the picture it’s also got a bud so more flowers are on the way.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett