Can someone please describe the tool you should use for earthing up, and the technique? Mine are just popping through now but I will try a combination of earthig up and mulching this year.
Pictures would be good if possible! Thanks
Quote from: antipodes on April 23, 2008, 13:24:50
Can someone please describe the tool you should use for earthing up, and the technique?
The tool I use has a handle 5, maybe 6 foot long. It has a metal head at right angles to the handle which is about 12 inches wide and has teeth at regular intervals with a gap of approx three quarters to an inch between each tooth. The technical name for this implement is "Rake".
(http://mcdowell.ces.ncsu.edu/content/images/library/59/perseus_rake.jpg)
The technique I use is to stand one side of the row of potatoes and then use said rake to pull the earth from between the row toward me but stopping exactly half way along the perpendicular length of the row so forming half of the ridge. I then repeat the procedure standing the opposite side of the row pulling the earth in the opposite direction which then completes the full ridge.
Sorry, I just could not resist that. I've had a good day today. All my parsnips are up and my strawberries have flowers on so I'm in a jovial mood.
I do actually use a rake and the above technique.
Hi Antipodes, this is what i use, http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=112804 pull the earth up over the newly green growth untill earth mound is around 1ft tall
windy
Its not really a science.
So long as the spuds don't see light they will be fine.Use whatever you have both the tools above will be fine.
I use a fork and just mound up.
::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)
hmmm i guess that I was asking for that one!!! But stupidly enough I just hadn't not imagined it to be that easy!!! chortle... I had somehow thought it was done with a sort of bizarre looking hoe!!!
sometimes you imagine easy things to be too complicated! like the old fellow on my plot gave me a quick fix for my problem of messy path edges (Grassy bits muddling the line between my plot and the path). He said make a line with your spade to mark your edge then get on the path and slide the shovel under all those weeds and grassy bits, chopping off the whole top layer as it were and just get shot of them. I have been trying for a whole year to work out how I could do that!!! and I had never dreamed of that method which now seems so obvious!
Oh well I am pleased to have given you all a chuckle anyway :P
Over the years I have just used what has come to hand e.g. Rake, Back Hoe or a Mattock, so I guess it is just a case of what you find easiest.
I don't earth up anyway! I will put some grass cuttings as a mulch in a couple of weeks time and take it from there. I never have any green potatoes, although I would probably have more if I did earth up!
I always thought it was those hoe shaped things that had a right angle downwards for the job. Got the tool but don't do the work!
Old Bird
;D
Quote from: antipodes on April 23, 2008, 16:08:24I had somehow thought it was done with a sort of bizarre looking hoe!!!
You can use a draw how if you find it easier. My plot neighbour has a plough type thing on a long handle that I borrow to make the furrows for my potatoes but I use nothing more unusual than a common or garden rake to earth them up with. I've got a Wolf cultivator that I use to loosen the soil between rows but I use it for a lot more than just that.
http://www.worldofwolf.co.uk/submenu/Multi-Change/Soil%20Care.html
Right at the very bottom of the page on the left left.
On the same page just above and to the right is a tool similar to what I use for furrowing but the one I use is 3 times larger. You could use one of those to ridge up but I doubt it'd be as efficient as a rake. I have quite a few of those tools that I've been collecting for 20 years. In fact the rake I use is at the top right of the page.
You can get fancy gizmo rotavator attachments that do it for you but I'd rather spend my money on tools and things I'm going to use more than one or two days per year... And the exercise is good for me :)
I'm a believer in the Mattock. The single, broad bladed type. Or the real hoe. So often the soil is caked hard & you need a bit of weight behind the blade.
Unnecessarily heavy if the soil is right, but less effort, despite weight, if hard.
I tend to use a hoe as i can weed at the same time, tried a mattock but there far 2 heavy for my back.
This year i am considering using a good thick layer of straw on the bed rather than mounding up and see if that makes a difference.
I bought a mattock with a axe head on on side, to make it lighter I cut the axe bit off and use the mattock as a heavy duty hoe to earth up my spuds
I use a screwdriver, takes me ages but the furrows look SOO accurate............. actually I use a mega big mattock ;)
You can be guaranteed sensible answers here folks................ ;D ;D ;D ;D
(must try the screwdriver ;D ;D ;D ::))
I'm a mattock man too, it's the only use I've ever found for it.
a shovel or spade might work.
all things considered, the rake is looking like a good option! I am VERY lucky that the soil is good crumbly loam so really easy to move around. Actually I feel really like a berk because it hadn't occurred to me to stand behind each row and move the soil from between the rows towards the plant stems... ::) ::) ::)
you live and learn.
Having said that I will also be putting down mulch because I did that last year and it certainly reduces the weeds if it doesn't stop them entirely. The bindweed seedlings are coming up already, I am just hoeing them off this year.
Thanks for all those suggestions!!
Plot69 reading your reply to Antipodes was the first time I actually laughed out loud. Good one mate! ;D
I too use a rake.
Quote from: Ishard on April 24, 2008, 18:23:30
Plot69 reading your reply to Antipodes was the first time I actually laughed out loud. Good one mate! ;D
I too use a rake.
Thank you but it was all down to Antipodes for presenting me with the opportunity. I had 9 parsnips last year. I'd just got home from the allotment after finding that all of two 15 foot rows had broken though so I was genuinely in a really good, jovial, playful mood at the time.
Thank you AP.
[whooshing sound as antipodes makes a sweeping bow to the adoring audience]
As my (extremely hilarious) best friend from Australia would say "God it's hard when you're funny"...
Plot69's answer made me smack my hand on my forehead and say a Homer Simpson-like "DOH!". But never mind, turned out to be a great comedic moment
8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
Mattock..at least that's what I use now!!
I use an azada, basically the same design as a mattock but sounds more fancy in Spanish. Same idea of a small spade shaped blade at 90° to a long handle.
Really good for earthing up and digging out the trenches in the first place. Took half the time as with a spade on its own.
http://www.get-digging.co.uk/tools.htm
John
I use my right angled fork, purchased from the same website, it is my favourite general digging/earthing up tool. Used it today for that very purpose! ;D