" a low ridge "

[tim]

Just looked up a reference, & it says just that.

So, experts, I've overdone it?? Got carried away. You'll have to guess from a poor photo. Oh, the one on the right? Granddaughter dug the trench!! = Tim

[Mimi]

Ok Tim,  I give up  ???what is the low ridge for?

[tim]

Let's wait for the forum of 5 to comment. To give early frost protection? No, then it wouldn't apply later. But whatever, I believe that one of the 5 said, some time ago, that too much is bad? = Tim

[ina]

Leeks?
In the low part?

[Hugh_Jones]

Tim, when I gardened on clay soil I used to sow carrots on a low ridge, allegedly to help drainage in sticky soil, and also to reduce slug attack - used to dust with soot or lime for the latter reason as well.

P.S. Would she like a part time job?

[tim]

OH, so THAT'S what he's on about!! Sorry - didn't notice that a whole sentence had disappeared!! No wonder folk are looking at me strangely.

The missing bit was  - "so when I planted my early potatoes yesterday, I thought I'd go by the book". Hence both trench & ridge. Does that help the sense??

My question remains. Thanks for the sympathetic ideas so far. = Tim

[Hugh_Jones]

But I always plant my potatoes that way tim

[Mrs Ava]

Okay, me a little dim, you dug a trench and piled the earth up to one side, then planted your spuds in the bottom of the trench and you will gradually fill the trench as the spuds grow with the mud that is mounded to the side.....or are your spuds under the mound??  

[Hugh_Jones]

EJ, I always plant in the bottom of the trench on the basis that the ridge will provide plenty of soil (not mud, please) for earthing up with later, and at the same time ensures that most of the tuber producing runners are at a reasonable depth below surrounding soil level anyway.

But then, I haven`t got a copy of tim`s book, and maybe he plants in the ridge so that (at 6ft 4ins tall) he won`t have to bend so far.

[ina]

Hahaha EJ, as soon as I read your posting I just knew that 'mud' thing would be back to haunt you. It didn't take long either. So 'mud' is a definite no-no hahahaha.

[tim]

I have pulled all the soil back over the pots - thus making a high ridge - which I believe is incorrect in someones eyes - can't remember who??

As to the distance between me and the bottom of the trench, Hugh, had a bright idea today - get one of those 'reach & grab' tools. At the moment, I have to do it on all fours!! = Tim

[Mrs Ava]

   I made a similar error once when chatting on a bike site and said the dreaded word - 'drive'.  ooooo How quickly was Emma put in her place, 'we say ride' I was told.    Mud, soil, compost, earth, it's all the same to me, it is what my kids drag in all over my lounge carpet when they have been playing in the garden, and what makes all my fruit, veggies and flowers feel at home in the garden and the lottie.  

[Hugh_Jones]

tim, the theory I work on is that if I bury the potatoes deeply to start with the stems will run up to the surface without forming leaf axils.  If I don`t put much cover on initially, then as soon as the lower leaves form I can earth up over them, and (rightly or wrongly) I think the axil buds will then send out runners (I forget the correct name) on which tubers will form.  Basically I`m trying to earth up as many leaf axils as possible with the soil available, and by starting with the seed cover well below ground level in the trench I don`t have to make such deep furrows between the rows to find the soil for earthing up.

I`ll bet John will now come along and shoot me down on theory, but it works for me.

[john_miller]

Rhizomes, Hugh, rhizomes, a la couch grass.

Regarding your 'theory'? No shooting from me, verifiable science.

[john_miller]

Verified, not verifiable!

[Hugh_Jones]

John, I don`t think we ought to tell tim - not after he`s gone to all the trouble of making. that lovely ridge. Wish I could make all my trenches that straight, though. Come to that, I wish I could train my granddaughters to dig trenches at all.

[tim]

All I can day is s-d it!! After all that work, I've got to go & flatten them down a bit. Have to get it done before the rain comes tomorrow.
But thanks, guys! And maybe it's served as a lesson to others? = Tim

PS The wiggly one is 'hers' - she forgot to use the line I gave her, and went off about a foot or so at the end. We had to do a bit of 'tidying up'!

And PPS - why earth up, or 'mould' ,at all at this stage?

[Garden Manager]

Before I discovered the no dig technique for growing potatoes i always grew my potatoes using this ridge and trench method, by digging a trech the ridge created provided plenty of soil for earthing up. I often ended up with the potatoes growing in a ridge with a trench in between the rows from all the earting up (the plants grew so well). The only thing was in hindsight i am not convinced on how effective it was, the tubers always formed at a particular level with few in the upper levels of the earthed up soil.

As you may know i now use a no dig method which generaly produces a good crop. And there is less chance of spearing/slicing throght a tuber as you are digging them up!

[Hugh_Jones]

tim, there is absolutely no point whatever in earthing or `moulding` up at this stage.  The whole purpose of covering lightly initially is to encourage the formation of short jointed stems with plenty of lower leaves which can then be covered as they form - it is from the axils of these leaf/stem joints that some of the tuber forming rhyzomes (for which nomenclature I am obliged to John) are produced.  If you cover the seed deeply you will mainly get long jointless shoots, the rhyzome forming leaf/stem axils will still not appear until the shoot breaks surface and either you will get a reduced crop or the necessary earthing up to cover them which follows can result in something reminiscent of early saxon defensive earthworks.

The other point is that too high`ridging`, particularly if the seeds are themselves planted in the ridges, results in too much drainage. Potatoes need large quantities of soil moisture once tuberisation starts, and draining this moisture away from high ridges into adjoining deep trenches frustrates this.

I am not quite sure what point Richard is trying to make, since he doesn`t disclose precisely what his current method is, but he must obviously be using some method of excluding light from his newly forming tubers or they would turn green.  If he is using black polythene, then he will simply lose the benefits of increased rhyzome formation from covered leaf/stem axils, and this method, while perfectly staisfactory for early potatoes simply results in lower cropping and greatly increased risk of slug damage, particularly with maincrops.  If on the other hand his method is to keep covering the newly forming tubers with more compost or straw, then he is, in effect, earthing up - although again without the benefits of increased rhyzome formation.

[Mrs Ava]

Phew, so what I was planning to do is the right thing to do....will wonders never cease!  Have dug 2 trenches, but have a feeling I am going to need another 2, oh well, the ground is so lovely and workable it didn't take me toooooo long.  Hugh, by the way, how deep would you make your trench, a spade deep??