Topic: TIPS PLEASE FOR POTATOES.

[PeterVV]

When planting, do you add manure/compost to the trench?
Do you remove all but one chit per potato?
Do you use a potato fertiliser?
Do you always earth up?

Last year was my first year on a plot, and we planted about 10 rows of spuds, and as we didnt have a water butt and there is no water on the allotment , during the dry spell in the summer I watered everything else and just weeded the spuds, as it was hell carrying 40 litres at a time from the car to the plot in 5 litre containers. Had  a fair if somewhat small crop, with the earlies in particular being small ( international kidney )

[flitwickone]

When planting, do you add manure/compost to the trench?  = i add a few slug pellets per 6 9 inch hole a few for each spud
Do you remove all but one chit per potato? =  i left 3 chits on my spuds
Do you use a potato fertiliser? when they are six inches high i earth up and hoe some fertiliser in and then when a spuds neighbours foilage touches the next plant another dose of fertiliser
Do you always earth up?= yes i earth up from day one its not ardous and it helps stops green spuds


my spuds this year will be rooster pentland javelin and wilja  ;D

[tonybloke]

When planting, do you add manure/compost to the trench? = YES

Do you remove all but one chit per potato?=  NO


Do you use a potato fertiliser?=  see answer 1 above

Do you always earth up? = YES

[chriscross1966]

When planting, do you add manure/compost to the trench?
Do you remove all but one chit per potato?
Do you use a potato fertiliser?
Do you always earth up?

Last year was my first year on a plot, and we planted about 10 rows of spuds, and as we didnt have a water butt and there is no water on the allotment , during the dry spell in the summer I watered everything else and just weeded the spuds, as it was hell carrying 40 litres at a time from the car to the plot in 5 litre containers. Had  a fair if somewhat small crop, with the earlies in particular being small ( international kidney )

For spuds there's no such thing as too much manure :D..... I'm aiming for at least six inches over the whole of the potato bed this year plus pretty much all the home-made compost on my plot will be used as part of the earthing-up/backfill

The "one chit" thing is a mistranslation of a way to grow big baking spuds.... what you have to do is well before you plant out you cut out all but one chit and dust with sulphur on the cut bits. rubbing off the chit without removing the bit of the potato that produces them just slows down the crop (a bit, not much on a maincrop though) ....

I will if someone has firesale prices on spud fertilizer.... otherwise plenty of chicken poo pellets isn't a bad idea...

I always earth up now cos I'vew tried the weed-membrane technique and had too many green spuds...

International Kidney isn't much of an early, use something like Rocket or Swift or Pentland Javelin that is a genuine early.... just cos something gets eaten as a salad potato doesn't make it an early....

Fraid potatoes need water and a fair amount of it to crop well

chrisc

[Cuke]

This will be my 4th growing season on the the allotment and I'm seriously considering either not doing any spuds or limiting myself to just one row or something... The reason? I dont seem able to grow them at all...

Each of the three years I've done things slightly differently with no apparant improvement...

I always dig a trench and I always add potato fertiliser when I plant the tubers and I always keep them earthed up... First year I added manure and shreded paper to the trench, second year I didn't, last year I a few bags of compost... All to no avail... The plants always end up weedy looking (a nice healthy green, just never 'bushy' like everyone elses) and I end up with a rubbish harvest...

Does anyone have any foolproof tips?

Should I put a load of manure/compost over the finished bed as well as in the trench this year?

[flitwickone]

i dont do trenches i use a fat dibber at least 9 inches deep  ;D my spuds are mungos

[calendula]

manure = yes but to the g round generally and not just the trench

chits = don't remove any

fertiliser = never, if your ground is well tended then manure at some point would be enough and even without any my spuds always do great

earthing up = I never earth up, can't be bothered  ;D

[cornykev]

Manure   yes
Don't remove chits
Fertiliser shouldn't need it
Always earth up it encourages more growing and no green spuds
A tip from a Friend EJ, when you have empty bottles at home, collect from friends and neighbours and fill with water and take them throughout the year and store at the plot or pour into large containers and use again.
You must keep the spuds well watered in dry periods.   ;D ;D ;D

[pigeonseed]

Cuke - what a shame, it sounds like there might be something wrong. There are some people on here who are potato experts, and perhaps they'll have some ideas about what it could be.

Are they getting enough water?
Are you growing varieties which have a low yield?
Are you digging them up too early? Or are you expecting too much in terms of yield?

[Tattieman]

This will be my 4th growing season on the the allotment and I'm seriously considering either not doing any spuds or limiting myself to just one row or something... The reason? I dont seem able to grow them at all...

Each of the three years I've done things slightly differently with no apparant improvement...

I always dig a trench and I always add potato fertiliser when I plant the tubers and I always keep them earthed up... First year I added manure and shreded paper to the trench, second year I didn't, last year I a few bags of compost... All to no avail... The plants always end up weedy looking (a nice healthy green, just never 'bushy' like everyone elses) and I end up with a rubbish harvest...

Does anyone have any foolproof tips?

Should I put a load of manure/compost over the finished bed as well as in the trench this year?

The first year that you put manure on could have been when there was all the problems with contaminated manure. The potatoes would grow but were always weedy looking. Try them in a patch that you have not added manure to and see what happens.

[gwynleg]

Cuke - my neighbour doesnt get any at all either - thinks it might be eelworm or something similar. Its a bit difficult as he had 15 rods but didnt cultivate for well over a year. I was then given 5 rods of his and he came back. I can grow potatoes on his old lottie - he is still a bit sore about this. But - he didnt cultivate  and I had to deal with the 5ft weeds so.....

I still feel a bit guilty though

[kt.]

Does anyone have any foolproof tips?

Should I put a load of manure/compost over the finished bed as well as in the trench this year?

I  dig the trench then line it with manure. 
Walk along the trench full of manure to flatten it a little
Place the potatoes sitting on top of the manure. 
Earth over with the dug soil or more manure,  or some of both if you prefer.

[antipodes]

I earth up a bit but after a while, I seem to run out of dirt, so I always mulch mine with a thick layer of stable waste from the local pony club, mostly straw but well soaked with horse doings  ;D That way they stay cool, and out of the light and I figure that they get some organic matter in the end when it al breaks down. It was awfully dry here last year but I still got a good crop, even though I barely watered at all.

[1066]

Similar to Antipodes - mulch with whatever you can get  8)
I'm too lazy to water my spuds (once in a blue moon!!), and rely on the mulching, using grass, straw, whatever I can get hold of.  Would also look at what PigeonSeed says about varieties - they can vary hugely as to yield.

1066  :)

ps - loving the top hat Pigeonseed  :D  8)  :D

[Dandytown]

I was having a discussion the other day about manure and the straw that comes with it.  I didnt realise that the straw was so good as well.

A fellow plot holder told me that some of her best crops of pots and toms came when she used straw.  For the pots she dug her trench and layered with manure then straw and placed the pots on the straw and then covered up.

[Morris]

 

I was having a discussion the other day about manure and the straw that comes with it.  I didnt realise that the straw was so good as well.

A fellow plot holder told me that some of her best crops of pots and toms came when she used straw.  For the pots she dug her trench and layered with manure then straw and placed the pots on the straw and then covered up.

I used straw as a mulch for the first time last year.   Planted seed pots with trowel in holes 6" deep (deeper than I usually do) in well forked over, heavily composted soil.  They took ages to emerge and I was starting to panic!  Mulched with more garden compost then earthed up with a really thick layer of straw, adding more later.

Had my best crop ever and didn't need to water more than a couple of times despite the drought.    Also very easy to wriggle out potatoes without disturbing the roots as they were growing just under the straw.  Will do it again this year & I'd def. recommend using straw if you can get hold of it inexpensively.

I looove potatoes, hope you can sort  your problems this year.

PS never thought of adding straw to the trench?

[terrier]

Also remember not to plant too close together, spuds need lots of room. I tried mulching with grass clippings last season, but the clippings rot down so fast they don't form an adequate cover. If you are not going to leave plenty of room for earthing up, straw is the way to go and just dig it in at the end of the season. As for manure, I layered this seasons spud beds with about one foot of it just before winter set in and there will be more added to it when I get a round tuit. I didn't water at all last season and still got a reasonable crop.
I'm slowly coming out of hibernation, so HIGH  ;D everyone. Fingers crossed for a good gardening year.

[pigeonseed]

Sounds like the advice is to mulch - I'll try and do that this year.

Thanks 1066 **preens**

[antipodes]

Straw... hmmm it does retain water well and maybe if it is put in the trenches, it gives the spuds room to grow as it rots down? I find that spuds love soil that has as much organic matter as possible, compost, manure, straw, whatever.
I saw a great pile has accumulated again at my local pony club, I will soon be down there with the garbage bags and my fork  ;D ;D

[pigeonseed]

If you earth up with straw, do you find it blows away? We're on a fairly exposed site. Maybe I'd need to mix straw and soil?