Planted my tatties

[sawfish]

here's an image of my backbreaking work for the day

[sawfish]

[Uncle Joshua]

Looks good, I dug 30 square feet so know what you mean about back breaking work.

[kenkew]

That looks pretty well drained...how do you do it at the moment?

[theothermarg]

First it was wet now it,s freezing going to wait till the end of march I think
marg

[cambourne7]

yep

[sawfish]

That looks pretty well drained...how do you do it at the moment?

The plot is on a slope which helps I think. Further down the plots can get quite muddy. The soil is very good, its really dark almost black and loamy to about 18-24 inches from years of cultivation by the previous owner who had it for 30 years and was digging mad by all accounts.

[kt.]

I will plant mine next week after this weekends forecast of snow ::)

[delboy]

I'm old fashioned about spuds.. so the end of March is when they will go in, and not even then for the main crop - Mid April.

[Jitterbug]

I was told that if you plant your main with your earlies the spuds get more chance of growing bigger before the blight hits them!  Any truth in that as I was going to plant everything this week-end (weather permitting).

Jitterbug

[gunnerbee]

looks just like my soil that!

[debster]

ive just dug over the area for my spuds, the earlies will probably go in fairly soon, havent chitted my main crops yet however they seem to be doing well on their own lol

[antipodes]

I wanted to plant my second earlies this weekend but someone at work even mentioned  there might be snow!!  :o
crikey!
so that might end up being just a well laid plan...

[sawfish]

I figure if they're in earlier they'll grow bigger and they're hiding under the soil from the frost anyway. Just keep em earthed up.

[manicscousers]

we've planted ours  ;D

[flowerlady]

Goodness did they salute as they went in !!!!!!! ::) ;D

Just checked MetCheck ... we are threatened with snow for the whole week  :'( :'( :'(

[chilli queen]

Hi manicscousers,
How far apart did you plant your potatoes in your raised beds. Sorry if this is a silly question but I am new to this.   :)

[star]

Sat and Sun for us :'( :'( Snow that is.

Ive put some 1st's in, Will have to wait till after the snow for the rest

[DenBee]

Well officially, according to local tradition, it should be this Friday for us.

Can't see it happening myself, because we've still got some preparation to do.  But you never know.

[artichoke]

St Patrick's Day is another traditional potato planting day (yesterday). To date I have planted 88, starting early in the month. I agree that early plantings grow well enough to be a reasonable size when blight hits, always hoping they are not knocked back by frost.

[manicscousers]

Hi manicscousers,
How far apart did you plant your potatoes in your raised beds. Sorry if this is a silly question but I am new to this.   :)

hiya, chilli queen, we've 3 beds of spuds, earlies are 9" apart..2nds are 12", lates are about 15"..the beds are about 12 to 15" deep..they're all covered with fleece now..don't take our word for it though, do your own thing..we learned by mistakes and this is what works for us  ;D