OK, this year, we finally got our plots all in raised beds and ran out of potato row space so have tried an 'experiment'. The whole bed thing and potatoes has been a worry for me so I did my usual thing and put my head in the sand until planting time was upon us (Easter) and remembered that I had read about using black plastic with raised beds. So, we planted the potatoes with a bulb planter in our nice deep beds and covered it with black plastic - I had been warming the soil for a couple of weeks with it so it was already cut and in place and after I planted the spuds, I put it back in place. Meanwhile, the potatoes, in this snug warm PVC duvet have raced to the surface where, to my horror, i spied several pallid sprouts - I was only rummaging around for slaters for the chickens and hadn't expected potatoes for weeks. Anyway, i emptied my entire compost heap on the beds, thereby covering them for another few days but what to do then? When should I put the plastic back - I am worried about cutting slits in the right place before the haulms get too big. Mostly, I am worried about frosts. Fleece would be easy enough but i have also read somewhere about using straw - we have a lot of this because we have chickens. Essentially, I am flustered about the whole black plastic, raised beds, straw thing - i even read about someone making a chicken wire cage and filling this with straw - this sounds a bit more than I fancy doing but if it came to it? ALL help gratefully received
;D if youre not a writer already,you should be! your post made me chuckle! not in a bad way of course! im no expert but id leave well alone now,i dont understand why you would cover them with plastic...me thinks a technique i have never heard of and i may be missing out...im sure someone more cleverer than me will give better advice shortly!
good luck
rach
x
Try fleece to stop the potato tops being frosted. I grow three rows of my earlies under a Lidl cloche. Provided the leaves do not touch the plastic, they should not be affected by frost.
Many years ago I worked for H.M. Forestry Commission in Norfolk. We had a late frost in May, everything was white.
Two of the forestry workers were having a banter.
Stan says, "How're your taters going on now, Freddie" and the replay was "My taters are alright, I was up at 4.30 washing the frost off"
I cut the grass today and covered the first two rows of earlies with the cuttings. One or two were just starting to show, but they are nice and snug tonight ;D
were you doing the plant through slits in the black plastic method?
we use..leaves, grass clippings, compost..straw would do fine, we put newspaper collars around ours and mulch over the top when they get too high for earthing up..ours are about 4" tall and I'll be sticking some fleece over them
Can you put plastic bell cloches over early sprouters? I was thinking of doing that, but was wondering whether the potatoes would be susceptible to blight because of the steamy, drippy environment.
Your potatoes are ok...leave plastic off now..if there is frost in forecasts they only need just bit of shelter..and only over night..You can use newspaper, fleece, well..even your plack plastic, but only loosely over.
Frost won't kill your taties, It may damage your top growth and in worst case kill your greenbits..but they will grow back..and you just get a bit later crop..so no panic ;D
Yes..mulch is great help..more is under..more is saved..quicker the recovery if damage happens....
Anything plastic and you have to take it off for the day......
Anything will do to cover them against the sort of frost we get now. I've never found that a frosting did spuds much harm anyway; it trims the top growth back a bit, but the roots are unharmed, and they very soon grow back.
Quote from: earlypea on April 18, 2010, 09:01:24
Can you put plastic bell cloches over early sprouters? I was thinking of doing that, but was wondering whether the potatoes would be susceptible to blight because of the steamy, drippy environment.
There won't be any blight around yet... :)
There was ice in my bucket yesterday morning and a dusting of frost this morning. Earliest potatoes covered by either bottles or straw. Bottles quite icy yesterday but potatoes fine.
manics, yep, I had thought I was doing something with black plastic but just got hopelessly confused about exactly what that might be. Anyway, my potatoes are safe for the moment - although I am certainly taking on board the posts stating frost is not such a big problem - although my entire haul of compost, some of which I had earmarked for greedy squash, is now on top of the spud beds. I ought to add that there are 18 kilos of potatoes in these beds so it would mean an awful lot of cloches. But my nerves are still rocking as I am now consumed with the minuscule details of slits, when and how big, plastic off or on? if off, when should it go on? Do the haulms find their own way to the slits or do they need coaxing? Has anyone come up with a foolproof method of placing the plastic and cutting slits while not being able to actually see where the potatos are....OMG, I am boring myself to death now. This is my 8th vegetable season so there ought to be no excuse for my uselessness but honestly, this veg game is MUCH harder than mucking about with roses or alpines (main gardening obsessions). As a chippy, working class northerner, the only vegetables I came across were chips! (and if we were feeling bold, maybe peas or carrots - in a tin of course! Even now, if it is too green and healthy, I dunno! Broccoli - eeugh, courgettes - never heard of them till I was 28 and as for brussels - I would rather do my own root canal work with a rusty chisel than put a sprout anywhere near my mouth. So, my potatoes (chips) are very dear to my heart and stomach.
Ditch the plastic, you dont need it. If we have dry weather its a pain to water with the plastic and it just gives a place for slugs to hide and eat holes in your spuds. Earth them up as they grow like previously suggested.
Agree with ditching the plastic - maybe put straw, anything dryish as a mulch really on top if you want to protect from frost, they'll probably be fine without it really. When the top growth does green up, maybe then put some more mulch on to help stop the weeds, but you may find that the top growth does a lot of the work for you in shading out the soil below and so hindering weed growth.
I used to do the earthing up stuff when they were in rows but now they are in beds, there is limited space to do any of this, hence the black plastic which was meant to keep the light out and stop the pots going green although I planted them in 250mm below the soil surface. Watering would entail poking the hose in the bed and leaving it for a bit until the whole bed is soaked. Ha, I also had thought it would leave a nice weed free space (since my plot is next door to the two biggest slackers in the universe - I kid you not, neither of them have done a hand's turn of work in 7 years while our council faffs about uselessly with a whopping great waiting list....but that's a whole other rant). Anyway, thanks for all the kind words of reassurance....this whole gardening thing is fraught with anxiety sometimes! Cheers, suzy
Something you might try (I did this once ok with spuds) is a thin layer of fine earth, then stout cardboard on top, this is fine for keeping weeds down and lets the water through, and can go on the compost heap at the end of the season. I do use cardboard around fruit bushes too to keep weeds down when I haven't got Mypex to use.
....this whole gardening thing is fraught with anxiety sometimes! Cheers, suzy
..an' I thought gardening was supposed to be a nice relaxing pastime :D
Forget the plastic, planted that deep, it would take Arctic conditions to damage your seed pots. I've just cut the lawn and dumped the lot on top of the potato beds. The seed potatoes are planted about 2" deep. I do this every year and they always seem to survive whatever weather we get ;)
I did a lot of research on the net over the winter on growing potatoes. Having always grown them traditionally, nice neat mounds getting ever higher over the season, I have decided to try the straw mulch method. They are six inches under at present, and straw (also have chickens) ready for when they need covering. In theory this should be easier, both less digging, and to harvest.
Will let you know how I get on!
Morris, why are you planting 6" deep, I assume you mean 6" under the soil? It just means when you harvest them, you have to dig down further to get them out. When I've thrown old potatoes on the compost heap they grow into potato plants just as well without soil. I've not tried the straw method yet but it sounds like a great idea, I just wonder, though, what happens on very windy days when all the straw blows away?
Hi Terrier
Well, I was very doubtful about just laying them on the soil. Would they get enough nutrients to grow really strongly and get a good crop? Also, for the maincrops, if I laid them on the surface, presumably more potatoes won't form on the stem as they do when earthed up?
About half the people I found when I spent ages googling this planted the potatoes at that depth, and then covered the shoots progressively with layers of straw and garden compost.
What I did was dig holes with a fork, making the soil nice and loose, then placed a potato at the bottom of a hollow about 6" deep; there is therefore only about 2-3"of soil on top, so hopefully I won't have to dig down too far, but they will still be rooting into proper soil. This was my thinking anyway.
I am going to make some kind of makeshift enclosure to keep the straw from blowing around; I saw people using beautiful willow hurdles but these are very expensive, thought I might use some of my home-grown bamboo bent into hoops around the edges.
Do you think this all sounds OK? As I say, it is an experiment - I both love and hate trying things out as it is so annoying if your crop isn't as good, but if you don't try things you miss possible brilliant new ways/varieties.
ahem, we are a tad confused aren't we? I believe I have been dazzled by novelty methods and am now inclined to take the path of least resistance (as usual). Been greatly cheered by the optimists (they could be in denial, though) out there who see no problem in a spot of frost. However, I am also a cheapskate tightwad and am desperate to use this stuff since I ordered acres of it and now have a socking great roll in my shed, redundant. When you get down to the practicalities of holding all this mulching material in place, the theories start to sound a bit rocky - it's not like I haven't been caught out before with 'hot tips'. I can see the many, many sheets of newspaper blowing around the site even now, some years later, after another misguided potato mulching exercise. So, might just bung some fleece over everything which will also hide incipient problems from view (ignorance is bliss) giving me a break from fear and loathing - until the next problem hoves into view.