Topic: Throwing 'Spuds' in

[Robert_Brenchley]

Depends how bad it is. I've often planted them in ground with bindweed or a little couch or ground elder. They keep a lot of the weeds down a bit by shading them, then I dig the weeds out with the spuds. But it won't work in ground that's solid with weeds.

[flowerofshona2007]

My own take on it is that by the time you've dug the ground to plant the taties, and then dug them up afterward, you've pretty much 'cleared' the soil

That is quite right  :) potatoes will not 'clear the ground' you have to do the work !
But by digging it twice you will get most of the nasties out of the ground.

Its very hard to judge someones 'tone' when its typed and things can quickly get miss understood as there are no facial expresions to go by :(  Something said in fun can be taken the wrong way.

[star]

If its just ordinary grass not couch. I would be tempted to do no dig, Put cardboard directly on the grass, soak it cover with compost or manure to 8" - 10" thick. When you plant your potatoes, move the mulch, cut a cross in the cardboard and remove the top layer of gras just where you want to plant.

Take out a 3" hole, drop tattie in cover with the soil removed, draw cardboard back over and pull the mulch over as well. Through the season you can top the mulch with a thinish layer of grass cuttings each time. This helps to conserve moisture and exclude more light.

It really does work very well, as the worms move around more freely they pull down the rotting cardboard and mulch. When you come to digging up the crop its surprisingly easy and friable.

I had trouble believing all this until I tried it................specially good for anyone with back problems - or lacking stamina like me ;)

[jennym]

Well, the cultivation side of it is one aspect of why people say potatoes clean the ground. The other thing they do is throw up lots of leafy growth, which does a great deal towards stopping or at least making weak any weeds that try to poke through.
Lazy beds are a way of doing it - you can do it this way - cut the "turf" in a slice off the top of the ground, turn it upside down so the leaves are in the dark and the roots are in the air, make a gash in it, pop your potato in. In reality what can happen is that instead of getting nice slices of turf, you dig chunks and tufts up, pile it in a heap and plant into that. Worth half an hour's work if you want to try and you may get some spuds out of it.

[DenBee]

The chap I share one lottie with certainly doesn't seem to do as much hard labour in the digging stakes on his potato beds as OH and I do.  He covers them with some manure early in the year.  And then seems to simply do as you say, Jeannine, and plant the spuds in individual holes.  No trenching or earthing up.  I haven't seen him for absolutely ages, but I'm sure, as an old stager at this game, he's found a method that suits him and gets him the results he wants.

[Robert_Brenchley]

That's pretty much how I do it; plant them with a trowel, and pile grass cuttings over the top.