Allotments 4 All
Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: nodig on April 20, 2019, 17:32:15
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Well a bloke on youtube was cheerfully showing us all how he grows potatoes, and there he was putting two (large) seed potatoes down each hole he dug with a bulb planter, with normal row spacing and normal hole spacing. Now are we all doing it wrong is the bloke just plain daft?
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That'll be the 'Oirisch way,' to be sure,two -be sure!.
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That'll be the 'Oirisch way,' to be sure,two -be sure!.
I tried raising chickens once, but they did not thrive. Turns out I was planting them too close together.
Seriously, seed potatoes vary in size and if I have a lot of very small ones I have reduced the planting distance between them on occasions. Never two in one hole though.
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but it made you watch his video though
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but it made you watch his video though
Thanks cambourne - to be fair to the bloke he was doing a scientific comparison between pot imprisoned potatoes and their free earth cousins. So he put 4 potatoes in his many (20) plastic 50 litre? pots and 2 potatoes in his 9" bulb planter holes. I'll let you know in a few months time if the future is plastic pots cambourne if you send me a stamped addressed envelope. I would guess the UK farming industry is also awaiting the results of this definitive study.
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but it made you watch his video though
Thanks cambourne - to be fair to the bloke he was doing a scientific comparison between pot imprisoned potatoes and their free earth cousins. So he put 4 potatoes in his many (20) plastic 50 litre? pots and 2 potatoes in his 9" bulb planter holes. I'll let you know in a few months time if the future is plastic pots cambourne if you send me a stamped addressed envelope. I would guess the UK farming industry is also awaiting the results of this definitive study.
For it to be scientifically valid, a control plot where no potatoes were placed in each dug hole would be required, surely ?
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Good point ancellsfarmer - another variable would be not putting twice the number of potatoes you didn't put in each hole into each pot, just for completeness.
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Good point ancellsfarmer - another variable would be not putting twice the number of potatoes you didn't put in each hole into each pot, just for completeness.
Isn't that 'normal for Norfolk'?
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'normal for Norfolk' is buying potatoes from supermarkets but some Norfolk people grow their own - I'm sure all counties have their fair share of odd balls.
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but it made you watch his video though
Thanks cambourne - to be fair to the bloke he was doing a scientific comparison between pot imprisoned potatoes and their free earth cousins. So he put 4 potatoes in his many (20) plastic 50 litre? pots and 2 potatoes in his 9" bulb planter holes. I'll let you know in a few months time if the future is plastic pots cambourne if you send me a stamped addressed envelope. I would guess the UK farming industry is also awaiting the results of this definitive study.
How are the spuds getting on?
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Bumper crop from the potatoes grown in pots! About 8 small potatoes from the 4 he planted about 15 weeks ago. This is the way he now wants to grow all his potatoes, to make life easier. The farmers will now change to pot grown potatoes when they get the good news.
7 minutes into video
https://youtu.be/YipIB1wUSfw
https://youtu.be/YipIB1wUSfw (https://youtu.be/YipIB1wUSfw)
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Perfectly normal for other countries to put 2 seed potatoes into one hole.
Let us not forget that because of lower light levels due to Britain's latitudes plants grow larger in Britain and stay smaller in more southern countries. Their leaves are much darker green too and lighter green in Britain. It is generally more cloudy in Britain as an additional factor, whereas in southern countries you more or less only get clouds when it is actually raining. In other words, what seems daft to us, is normal and appropriate elsewhere, because conditions are different, in particular light levels are much, much stronger in southern countries.
A parallel is how many beans per each bean stick. One is normal for Britain, up to seven elsewhere. If you only have a quarter of the leaf area due to latitude and light levels, then 4 per stick is entirely the correct way to go. Russell Crow, the famous bean conservator in the USA plants 4 per stick for example. :wave:
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I used a bulb planter this year very successfully. I planted two rows from ground level with the planter and one row after I had dug a trend (so around 5 inches deeper than the trench. The rest just as normal with the spade. They have all s=done very well: - Arran Pilot, red Duke of York Desiree and Fir apple . BUT I ONLY PUT ONE SPUD PER HOLE :blob7: