Poor old spuds got a bit frosted the night before last. Yesterday we gave them a good drink and earther them up a bit more.
Was that the right thing to do?
How much damage has the frost done to our crop potential?
(These are first earlies and they have been up and earthed up several times over the last few weeks.)
Thanks,
Sarah.
I would think if they'd been earthed up they'd be ok. Normally I think you cover them right over with soil Mine aren't in soil so I can't do that. I stuffed straw round them but as air frost was forecast last night I was on the lotty again late covering them with fleece.
If you give them a drink give it earlier rather than later in the day if frost is forecast
If the spuds are earthed up maybe the only part which may be damaged is the leaves and not the crop
It'll just delay them.
The tips of my spuds were frosted last night in sunny surrey, they were earthed up but the tips were showing, funny thing though, looking around the site some people had been affected and others hadn't, some people who had just the tips showing had got frosted and others who had their whole plant showing were fine, and visa versa.
Should I be watering my spuds now?
Katy
Mine were frosted last night, but it's happpened before and done no harm. I don't earth mine up, I grow them on the flat, under a thick compost and grass mulch.
Hi RB :) Is that grass clippings which are a bit yukky or dead fresh? I ask as I've been growing my spuds in manure and topped with black plastic. I wanted to "earth" mine up as it were (not sure if I really need to) and thought I'd used grass mowings but they'd gone revoltingly stinking and mushy. Used some hay I found but it just keeps blowing away. Any advice? I think I should have got myself a bale of straw and earthed up with that but I was trying to use what I had available which is not much ;D
I have just been to check on mine and the fleece seems to be protecting them. Just one more night of frost and then I will earth up half of them at the weekend.
We had a @@@ surface frost (-2C) yesterday too - got my spuds - all the leaves turned floppy :( - I have to leave them unattended now for a week so I'll earth them up and hope they recover. As it's my first try at spuds I feared the worst - I'd have to dig 'em up and start all over again 4 weeks later - but it seems from tim's comment that there is still hope. Next year I'll plant them a bit later but especially I'll earth them up and put some fleece over them until end of May.
When you say "earth them up" when frost is forecast, do you bury the leaves completely?
Thanks all,
Dan.
Wardy + Robert -
Do you have a problem with slugs growing your spuds like that?
D
Wardy,
I'm not Robert -but I mulch my spuds with fresh grass cuttings, If I think they might blow away then I'll water them.
Slugs seem to leave the stems alone and just go for the tubers.
Jeremy
Diane I will report back on how well or badly they did. I have grown them under home made compost before and just earthed them up with that. This time I have used cardboard first, then manure, then black sheet mulch which I cut holes in to allow the spud to grow through. I think the first lot I tried just on to of the soil in a mound of home made compost was easier on a small scale as I just used the same material to keep earthing them up. This time I'm growing on a larger scale. You can't really earth up in the normal sense so I have stuffed straw round them and tucked it in to the plastic to stop it blowing about which should help with frost and light. When I grew them in my hm compost they were great and not got at by slugs etc. This time I grew Desiree as I'm told slugs like these the least. Hope so
BFD - comes a stage when they are too tall?
"Earthing up" does more than one things.
One thing, if you cover the leaves completely, is to protect from frost.
Once the leaves have been frosted, covering the leaves does nothing for the plant at all, except possibly stop the good leaves photosynthesising and supplying the plant with food.
If, however, you earth up just the bare stems this provides additional space for tubers to grow without sticking out of the soil and going green.
As we don't appear to be threatened with frost for the next week or 2 (in the south anyway) it is not necessary to cover the leaves completely, in fact it is not a good idea (see above)
Phil
Well rotted grass cuttings are probably best but I take what I've got. They bring dead leaves and grass cuttings down from local housing estates, so we have a mountain of each. I've got as much mulch as I can barrow, the only problem being that it's not well rotted, and a lot of crops will rot ratehr than grow through it.
I don't have too much of a problem with slugs on a slightly acid soil, it's wireworms which are the problem with spuds.
Quote from: Sarah-b on May 11, 2005, 10:33:47
Poor old spuds got a bit frosted the night before last. Yesterday we gave them a good drink and earther them up a bit more.
Oh dear - that means mine are probably stuffed as well. I covered the maincrops with a double layer of fleece and the earlies were fleece cloched but that has a habit of blowing off :(
Was it really bad?
moonbells, still in blazing hot Florida... and wishing she wasn't.
Mine are growing back already.
MB,
If they were under fleece you should be OK otherwise you could have given your holiday to a more deservig cause (I can think of one immediately ;D) and stayed at home to look after your crops like any responsible allotmenteer
Phil
Moonbells how could you be so selfish as to go off to Florida and leave your charges to freeze to death ;D
These were started into growth in the Tunnel in early February and frosted off as you can see, in April. Left alone and dug up today. Not a good crop, but better than nothing. Possibly Concorde.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v172/Berghill/Amay/smallpots.jpg)
Eric - that's enough - makes us all look silly!!
And Phil - earthed up my haulms against the frosts we've had for the last 3 days. No access to mulches.
ooooooooo Eric, I am so jealous! They look fab.
Here are some pics of mine, all earthed up - I plant back to front really, I plant in trenches, then earth them up so the ground is level, then make little mountains as they grew. Don't know why...just do....
EJ - so does each spud have it's own mountain rather than the long rows that are normally done?
My in-ground spuds are just coming through. Very exciting.
No, they all get earthed up in long tobelarone ridges, it is just, I dig my trench, bung my spuds in, cover them, and then they are in a dip. Once they are way through, I rake the spoil into the dip so the ground is level - which is what you can currently see in the pic. Then, over the next few months, I will earth up, using soil from beside the rows, plus well rotted horsey poo, grass cuttings, shredded paper and straw, so come digging time, there will be the traditional looking mounds, just not as high as some peoples.......
oh i see.
I reckon I'm going to have to just fill in the raised bed mine are in (there's about 9in of room at the top). I'm not sure if I left enough room for earthing. Oh well - I have plenty of spare soil!
Quote from: EJ - Emma Jane on May 13, 2005, 13:01:59
.....they all get earthed up in long tobelarone ridges.......
Now there's an interesting technique, I've only every put FYM and fish, blood and bone on mine!
Phil
Phil - you are on form today!
waste of chocolate! tee hee
It does NOT pay to say 'I'll do it later'. I saw that the fleece had blown off in the 25mph wind (gusting to??) yesterday. Did I go straight out & fix it??
Not serious, but annoying.
Quote from: wardy on May 13, 2005, 09:59:23
Moonbells how could you be so selfish as to go off to Florida and leave your charges to freeze to death ;D
Believe me if I could have stayed here I would have... first tried to wriggle out of going in December but boss overruled. Blasted conference is mid-May each year - bleh.
(no Phil not holiday - work :( . Half the people there volunteered to go in my place until I mentioned they'd have to give a paper... then they miraculously vanished again! )
Back now as of 6.45am THANK GOODNESS I LOATHE HOT PLACES
moonbells (blissfully cold)
ps I have a geoff hamilton fleece cloche over the earlies and two layers of flat fleece on the maincrops. Not exactly leaving them to freeze... except the GH cloche tends to blow off.
pps hubbie hasn't killed any of the seedlings off this year or my Acer! Hurrah!
postscript :'(
Badly shrivelled earlies as it seems we have had a lot of wind and bang went the fleece. The half that stayed draped over the patch has at least protected some of the plants, but a lot are toast.
Having said that, there's plenty of subterranean growth so they should recover OK.
And the maincrops were fine under their double layer. Phew. Cabbages are also fine despite losing their fleece cover too, but that was for flea beetle. No damage, which sort of makes up for the spuds.
Enviromeshed the carrots and sowed another row (maincrop) and netted the alarmingly advanced redcurrants. Now exhausted but hopefully it'll help beat the jetlag. ::)
moonbells
Hi Sarah-B,
Living in Scotland we are well acquainted with frost at this time of year. Your crop is not in danger, the fact that they were already earthed up gave extra protection.
All the potato crops at our Association suffered leaf damage but at the end of the day it only sets the harvest back about two weeks.
This frost according to our old worthies was nothing they would worry about.
PREMTAL
I left my tatties uncovered night before last as no frost forecast in my neck of the woods. We then had a frost and all my spuds now have blackened foliage :(
My spuds have the charcoal foliage also - they got singed by the frost last week however they seem to be recovering this week... ;D
I'm not sure how much more frost we get up here in Falkirk compared to south of the border. I'm sure my old neighbour said he witnessed frost and snow one June - not sure if he was pulling my inexperienced leg though!
What I wouldn't give for some potato plants to *get* frosted!! Only started two weekends ago, and got round to asking others about whether it was too late for main crop last weekend (assuming it was) as I finally had a bed dug over that would be suitable. People who'd been there a while (and have healthy looking crops going) said a maximum of three weeks, and then - no. Since then I've looked everywhere accessible while still working - and was out and about looking today - but no-one has any seed potatoes left :( Guess I'll have to leave it as something to try next year. Am thinking off putting in purple broccolli and leeks.
Ellkebe
Get some 2nd croppers for planting in July.
Thanks Tim - I find the whole potato thing a bit confusing!
Can I order second croppers (second *main* croppers?) through catalogues? All the outlets around here seem to be out of pots. full stop.
And when would 2nd croppers crop exactly?! Sorry to be so helpless about all this - it must seem like second nature when you've done it a few times.
Ellkebe
Now i am really going to upset you. We have 3 sacks of seconds left over from last season, which are sprouting away and going too soft to eat. Next stop.....the council compost heap. What else is there?
Can't you shred them for composting or trench lining, Eric?
ellkebe - depends upon why you want main crop?
We have only used Marshalls' seed. Carlingford, Franceline & Maris Peer - all '2nd Earlies/ Early Main'. Planted in July,they crop from mid-September.
Probably me not knowing what the terms mean Tim! I was told it was too late for earlies and to go straight to main crop, which I thought just meant cropped later!
I'll try Marshalls. Thanks for the help :)
And Palustris, 'upset' is an understatement!!
Elkebe The seed catalogues are very good as they describe everything perfectly and give detailed planting instructions. You can also probably get them from your allotment society shed later in the year.
Elkebe,
Before you dash off to buy some second croppers - be aware that they do not grow in the open (unless you live in the Scilly isles) but need protection and do best in containers in a conservatrory/greenhouse.
They are also expensive.
Where do you live - I still have few tubers that I couldn't quite fit in
Phil
I know that Phil (the potato guru) will forgive me for this, & I'm not saying that I disagree, but these were the aforementioned varieties in the Cotswolds. Half eaten!
The Franceline are the red ones.
Elkebee, I have 3 international kidney (aka jersey royals) seed spuds you can have if you can collect from oxford :D
Tim,
As ever, you have shown what can be done!! When did you harvest last of the crop?
My concern is that frost will curtail (or stop even!) the growth before there is a decent sized crop.
Phil
They were sound (surprisingly) way into the frosts. Coming up frozen!
I went up to the lottie last night to plant leeks (no room left in the frame!) and peeked under the fleece at the poor frosted spuds. And they're regenerating very fast! Lots of new little shoots already, so I'm much cheered up by this. The chair of the allotment committee suggested they'd be put back a couple of weeks, so I figure it's one way of getting successional crops ;D
Now all we have to do is hope for more rain - too dry and cold for anything to germinate well at the moment
moonbells