ID help please

9 years ago

Hello everybody -

Having recently gone part-time at work, I decided to spend a bit of time in the garden, but as is my nature, have become completely obsessed with it and dug up the whole garden and have sown or planted a ridiculous number of different types and varieties of fruit and veg in what is a very small garden. Amongst the many mistakes I have made so far, not labelling everything is probably one of the biggest. Most of what I have sown is starting to grow slowly and I know what it is, but two particular types of plant are racing away, and I don't know if they are a) veg that I have sown, b) weeds brought in with the horse, sheep and cow manure I dug in over the winter, or c) fodder radish that I sowed last autumn as a green manure but which didn't germinate over the winter.

I attach a photo of each. Having seen the brilliant response to somebody else's request for an identification last week, I'm hoping I can also find out what these are.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks in advance

Featured Answer

Jake Henry
Original Author

9 years ago

A final thanks to everybody - I can now definitively confirm the answers you all gave were correct - I transplanted a few plants, rootball and all, the rest I pulled up and each root system was indeed attached to a small piece of potato peel. This amazes and delights me (and makes up somewhat for the more lackluster performance of the veg I actually intentionally planted!). Also, each root system had some tiny but perfectly formed potatoes starting to develop, which has also delighted me!

The pulled up plants I threw in the compost bin, so this may not be the end of the story ...

Thanks again - this forum really is a fantastic resource for beginners like me.

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Comments (11)

LoneJack Zn 6a, KC
9 years ago
The first one looks like it might be the fodder radish, the second one looks more like a potato plant.
Jake Henry
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks Jack - yes the 2nd one looks very similar to the potatoes I planted elsewhere, but I'm certain I didn't plant any in this particular bed.
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JustaGuy17
9 years ago
Did you put any compost there? Provided they have eyes, potato peels can grow into plants, believe it or not. That's definitely a potato, whatever the case.
Jake Henry
Original Author
9 years ago
Yes, when I dug up the lawn I put down a load of compost - horse manure, seaweed, nettles, comfrey, but also a lot of kitchen scraps, including potato peeling. There are a dozen plants like that coming up in a tiny bed. Could that really be from potato peel? That's incredible if so.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
9 years ago
They can they can certainly be from potato peels. It is quite common to get potato plants growing from undecomposed compost.
Dawson North TX (z8a/7b)
9 years ago
First one definitely looks like a radish so it is probably the fodder radish and second one looks like potato. potato peels will certainly grow so that's where that came from.

Dawson
Jake Henry
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks everybody, seems to be a pretty clear consensus on this.

The potato ID has really surprised me - I've counted 16 plants in a 10 x 4 ft bed.

I've pulled up some of the other plants and they have a long tap root that looks like parsnip and smells like radish. Doing an image search on fodder radish roots completely confirms the ID.

Really appreciate the help, though slightly disheartened that the two crops growing most strongly in the garden are accidental ones!

Thanks again.
Jake Henry
Original Author
9 years ago
A quick follow-up question: does potato transplant easily? It's a small garden and I've already planted two beds up with potatoes and there's too much else I want to grow to dedicate another one to them. I have some old large pots though I could move a few of them into and a space outside the garden fence I could put them.

Thanks
LoneJack Zn 6a, KC
9 years ago
I've never tried nor heard of anyone transplanting a potato. If you need the space for something else you can certainly try a few.
farmerdill
9 years ago
If you use a shovel and transplant the entire rootball, it works fairly well. I sometimes do this if I have skips in the potato patch. Does not work if you expose the roots tho.