Prepping clay soil for potatoes

[Uncle Monty]

I have clay soil and have rough dug a large bed for my taties, now even after another good digging and composting/manuring the bed is comprised of hard clay bricks that would probably resist anything but a rotovator.

Should i:

plant my taties in it anyway to help break up the soil?

get more compost/manure/coarse grit in there? if so how long, if at all, should i wait until planting said spuds?

get the rotovator on it? again is there a waiting period before i should plant?

cheers in advance

[Uncle Monty]

[chriscross1966]

Lots of poo and get a rotavator on it..... (I like rotavators.....)

[Unwashed]

I've planted tatties in soil you describe, and they did miserably.  Without a tilth it's very difficult to get anything other than couch to grow.  I'd suggest a layer of dung in the trench and that should give them enough to sustain them.

[Uncle Monty]

Rotovated and dug 8 barrowloads of manure and compost in to the beds today and will manure the bottom of the trench as advised when i plant the  seed spuds out at the weekend. Thanks for the help folks.

[gwynnethmary]

With all that muck and magic it'll be a lot better next year!

[BoardStupid]

I seem to have a clay and sand mix on my plot. Bloody nightmare !%*"$"!"$!£%!£%^

I'm thinking just chuck everything at it. Compost, manure, kitchen sink ... Anything really

[aj]

Just use a bulb planter, cover with newspaper or cardboard and leave them.

When you dig them up, the soil will be looser - add cardboard over the top for the winter and next year the soil will be even better.

Clay is the best type of soil to have.

[cornykev]

 :-\ :-\ :-\

[gaz2000]

my plot is clay in places,manure and compost over the years helps,im certainly getting there

but to get it ready for spuds its about conditions,too wet and it will stick to the spade and not break up

too dry and you will break a wrist trying

with the weather we have had i would wait untill after the next rainfall and then attack it with a fork,then with a rake to get a finer soil.

i sow mine in a line of compost after the above and just rake over untill earthing up

[Uncle Monty]

This is all invaluable stuff, thank you all so much!

[Uncle Monty]

Sowed 5 rows of Rocket 1st earlies today thanks to the A4A brain trust, Nadine 2nd earlies tomorrow. All the advice is most appreciated folks, thank you.  :) :D ;)