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My potatoes have started to get weeds growing in the soil that I have earthed up. I can't hoe them out as it will ruin the mounds. They have sprung up quite quickly in the past week.

I can't hoe anywhere on my spud bed as I've put leaf mold all over it.

Any tips?

Quote from: Cosmo and Dibs on April 20, 2009, 20:00:24
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I can't hoe anywhere on my spud bed as I've put leaf mold all over it.

Any tips?

I can't see why leaf mold would stop you using a hoe but couldn't you pull the weeds out by hand?

I should say that the leaf mold is quite fresh, and has not rotted yet- most of the leaves are still intact.

I could pick the weeds out by hand, but I don't want to pull out the poatoto plant- which I've no idea what they look like.

They look like this when they first start coming up....

Forget about them! Weeds that is!

As the potato haulms (tops) develop they will starve the weeds of light and this will kill them off!

Plus as the potato grows these will take the available moisture so again the weed suffers!

This is one of the reasons people are advised to grow potatoes as the first crop on rough weed infested ground............the weeds have a tough time competing with the potatoes!

There!! I have saved you a thankless job. ;D

 ;D ;D

Thanks, TeeGee! Phew!!

Tee Gee thank you, you have just given me next weekend back

lbb

Assuming the weeds are seedlings, they're competing with something coming from a massive great tuber, with all the extra energy that implies. They won't have a chance.

Quote from: Tee Gee on April 20, 2009, 20:31:25
Forget about them! Weeds that is!

As the potato haulms (tops) develop they will starve the weeds of light and this will kill them off!

Plus as the potato grows these will take the available moisture so again the weed suffers!

This is one of the reasons people are advised to grow potatoes as the first crop on rough weed infested ground............the weeds have a tough time competing with the potatoes!

There!! I have saved you a thankless job. ;D

Can I just ask about growing potatoes like that? Our plot has loads of weeds that we're clearing as fast as we can but having read that we shouldn't grow potatoes two years running in the same place I haven't been sure about planting too many. We have enough seed potatoes that we could probably cover most of it (it's only about 50 sq m) in them but I want to be able to grow them next year too. At the moment there's so much couch grass I'm not sure many other things will stand a chance though.

You should be OK Firefly... it's problems like eelworm that build up in the soil that you are avoiding by rotation... while the ground has been vacant they should have gone elsewhere...  :-\

The danger is that accidentals (spuds you missed when you lifted them) are the classic source of blight. If you plant them in the same place as last year, it's impossible to weed them out.

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on April 21, 2009, 09:36:04
The danger is that accidentals (spuds you missed when you lifted them) are the classic source of blight. If you plant them in the same place as last year, it's impossible to weed them out.

Is it easy to miss ones like that - how small can they be and how deep? I've only ever harvested potatoes from a container before.

It's inevitable, you always miss some. I've had really tiny ones coming up from inches down.

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on April 21, 2009, 11:48:36
It's inevitable, you always miss some. I've had really tiny ones coming up from inches down.

Hmm, I think I will have to assume I'll miss some. I think I'll just plant potatoes over about half of the useable space we get this year from our clearing and put them in the other half next year perhaps.

Does the amazing power of potatoes to beat weeds extend to couch grass? I just couldn't get it all before I had to plant the earlies, even on three passes over that bed. I look at the soil on Gardener's World and could weep when I think of what mine is like in comparison - little bits of nasty root everwhere I look, even if it's just small bits now.

Will be like that for a while I'm afraid, at least it is on my plot.

Best way I've found to clear it, is just keep digging it out... as long as you don't ignore it ( like I have done in some areas) it will lessen after a few years, and if you keep digging, the soil gets more managable and its easier to pull out

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on April 20, 2009, 21:10:14
Assuming the weeds are seedlings, they're competing with something coming from a massive great tuber, with all the extra energy that implies. They won't have a chance.

They are tiny seedlings, yes.

There is one rather large weed that keeps coming through right in the corner. I've no idea what it is, but it has a white central root, and looks a bit like a nettle, but it is flat. ......?

Any chance of a picture?  :-\

Quote from: fireflydigger on April 21, 2009, 12:24:26
Hmm, I think I will have to assume I'll miss some. I think I'll just plant potatoes over about half of the useable space we get this year from our clearing and put them in the other half next year perhaps.

That's pretty much what I do. I don't have an organised rotation, but alliums and spuds are on one side one year and the other side the next. That ensures that everything gest moved round.

QuoteDoes the amazing power of potatoes to beat weeds extend to couch grass?

In a word; No!!

In fact I have actually witnessed a couch grass root grow through a potato. This doesn't happen often but it shows the power of couch grass roots!

What I meant when I said potatoes will kill off weed I meant 'annual' weeds. Sorry I didn't make that point clearer in my reply!

Nor will it kill such things as willow herb, Fat hen, thistles etc i.e. any plant that can exceed the height of potato haulms.

Quote from: saddad on April 21, 2009, 13:00:57
Any chance of a picture?  :-\

I'll get a pic of that weed, but here are the seedlings coming through my mounds: