Please help me, my lottie is driving me crazy.
Until this year it was being farmed, and two years ago the farmer was growing potatoes, and these are still growing everywhere. I thought I had dug out most of them, but I suppose with the land being ploughed before being handed over, some of them went pretty deep.
I now have potatoes growing among the onions, in the middle of the beans canes, behind the raspberries, amongst every straight row that I have sown, and really annoyingly in the newly planted asparagus bed, and so on. Basically, if there is soil, there are potatoes - far more even than I have planted.
On the ground that I haven't yet planted, I did start digging them up whenever I saw them, but I am fighting a losing battle, some that are sprouting are only the size of peas.
I suppose I could I just give in gracefully, and leave all the ones in the unused ground and dig them up when they are ready to eat, but this will mean that I won't have space to put lots of my other crops in.
... and what to do about the ones in the beds that are already planted.
Any ideas on how to cope with this please, it's getting to the point where I am scared to go down there. It's bad enough with all the new weeds (farmers obviously never weed their ground), maybe I should just have left it for a while and covered the whole thing with weed suppressant for a couple of months, but I am nothing if not eager.
Others (beginners like me) are having the same problem, but those with lots of money who bought in masses of compost and made raised beds seem to be pretty clear, though it could be that the little devils are still working their way up.
Just read this and it sounds like I am really whingeing - I'm really happy to have the plot, but am just soooooo frustrated. Suggestions please??
In the intrim period; if they are appearing where you have other crops then just hoe the tops off as they appear, in unused ground fork them out completely.
It might take a season or two to finally get rid of them, I often find the odd rogue a couple of years after I have used a bed so it is not uncommon.
Although in your case the farmer wont have been as thorough a gardener might have been at harvest time, hence the problem.
Sorry but thats the best I can suggest.
Thanks Tee Gee. If I hoe off the tops will that kill them off, or is it a case of keeping the tops under some sort of control until I am able to dig them out later on in the year?
I do keep muttering 'next year it will be so much better' under my breath.
i agree with tee gee,get out the ones you can.
sorry to hear youre having such a crappy time,you can really sense your frustration.it WILLbe easier next year,i promise,grin and bear it for this year
rach
x
keep digging um out they will soon go
you always get some escape when you dig up spuds even the tiny ones that fall down the cracks make there way up again ;D
Thanks for all the encouragement, I'll keep on at the little blighters (pause for a quick chorus of We Shall Overcome)
Thought ... if I were to dig up the ones in amongst the onions, can I replant the onions after?
... just goes to show that all the chitting business is unnecessary
Dig them out where you can, hoe them or pull them (the latter often gets a lot of underground stem) where you can't. You will be rid of them, and it's better than having couch or ground elder!
QuoteThought ... if I were to dig up the ones in amongst the onions, can I replant the onions after?
I wouldn't!
You might at worst lose your onion crop, or at least severely check them causing them to prematurely 'bolt' (run to seed)
You don't say how far your onions have progressed so they might have a fair root system on them now and this would be damaged.
If the potato haulms (shoots) are very close to the onion where a hoe might damage your onion cut the haulm off with a penknife.
and yes...........You shall overcome them!!
The onions are doing really well Tee Gee - a very proud mother, so I will leave well alone and keep on beheading. Glad you stopped me - I thought it sounded like quite a good idea.
Robert, no ground elder, but plenty of couch - thats all along the side of the allotment next to the track. It was hidden under a ridge (or whatever the name is for the bit next to a furrow) by the tractor and is now coming through nicely. I'm working on this bit by bit and hopefully will have that clear and ready for use next year.
If the couch is next to the track, then that's wehre it's coming from. Is there anything you can do to encourage it - perhaps strim the grass on the track?
There's nothing on the track Robert, it's just used by tractors. Think I'll have to post a piccy to explain. I have sprayed it with Roundup (hope that's not too evil and that everyone will hate me), but it keeps coming through - watch this space!
As the others have said Pink dig out where you can and chop the heads off the ones amongst your crops, I have some coming up from last years spuds, fair enough but I have also got some coming up in the area I had them two years ago. ??? :-\ :'( ;D ;D ;D
I have potatoes growing in my flower bed in front garden i've never planted any there so i have no idea how they got there (scratching my head) ??? thought i'd solved it last year but they back again this year.
Hope all your good advice help's pink fingers and i sort our potato problem out fingers x :)
I'd suggest just taking advantage of this free crop and digging them up and eating them. :) Enjoy the fruits of someone else's labour.
edible 'weeds' sounds great to me! I can imagine that it is a bit of a nuisance but I will swap them for my unending bindweed if you like! ;)
One more point ... should I dig out the asparagus bed remove all the potatoes and then start again? It's new this year and is just showing little matchstick size spears. Or would I be best leaving it for now and digging out later in the year? I've more or less resigned myself to not getting a crop of several years!!
There is one rather more drastic step that you can take without sacrificing any of your own crops, but the organic gardeners won`t be very pleased, and it`s a bit laborious. Basically you spot-weed every single potato shoot that comes up with Roundup (I`d use the brushwood version of it). Use drain pipes, water pipes, or whatever suits the case to put over each potato shoot as it appears, and as soon as it gets three or four leaves spray it with Roundup. It will require several doses per plant because initially the shoots are not dependant on a root system but on the original tuber, and as you kill off each shoot another eye will sprout, but after several goes the tuber should become exhausted, the production of growth will cease, and that will be the end of that particular plant.
Obviously this method is neither cost nor labour effective where you can easily dig them up or keep pulling them, but it will certainly save your asparagus bed.
Simply pulling the shoots off as they appear will get rid of them in one season, provided that you get every single shoot. The number of shoots that any potato tuber can send up is finite, and once every one of that number is removed the tuber cannot reproduce and will just rot away.
PF,
The advice you have received is sound - good bunch here!. It's a shame that your asparagus bed has been affected as the work put in should be saved if poss..
I reckon mine has been seriously hit by a heavy mulch of aminopyralid poisoned manure put on last year. The crop is very poor - so I start again!
Like yourself, I use glyphosate. I use it only on the plot borders to stop any couch encroaching & only once a year. It takes 4-6 weeks to show results so 'hold hard'.
Well Kepouros, sounds like it might not just be the tubers getting exhausted, and (not that I'm aware of having any terminal illnesses) I'm not too sure that I will live long enough for this, but an interesting idea. ;)
Think I might just get the catalogues out and check on asparagus prices.
Thanks all, I followed your advice. :-*
Pulled the tops off the spuds that were interfering with rows of seeds sown (use a very handy kitchen knife to get under the soil without cause damaged to the surrounding seedlings).
I left all the others growing on the 'empty' ground, and have just been digging them up as the ground is needed. Last week, I got 4lb of and they were delicious. Do the tiny potatoes grow again if I don't get them out? I have been very careful to remove every single one that I could see, even the ones that look like marrowfat peas, but it is very labour intensive.
PF
No pleasing some people - free 'weeds' that you can eat ! ;D
the problem with spuds that have been left in from previous years is the fact that they might have blight.
this organism cannot liveverwinter in soil alone, it needs to live in potato tubers. When these sprout and grow the following year, the spores spread again!!
Keep chopping them down.
Farmers spray them or spot weed with a glyphosate wipe to avoid blight carry-over from year to year
rgds, Tony
i dug a couple of rogues the other day, got about 5lbs of the most gorgeous spuds from them was well chuffed