[bb_odiham]

Refering to my recent post:
http://www.chat.allotment-garden.org/viewtopic.php?t=18769

I want to now try to alleviate the problem I've created by planting my spuds too close.

Is it too late to dug up a few rows and then earth up the remaining rows of potatoes?

Will this disrupt the other plants and basically, is it a good idea?

I'm worried that if I don't, I could face having problems with the entire crop. My theory is that if I free up space for half the crop and earth them up nicely, I will end up with better results.

[compostqueen]

what spuds are they and how close did you plant them.  Some have huge foliage which should be supported. I don't but then I'm lazy and the spuds have been fine

Has it rained since they collapsed?  A good rain shower or watering might make them spring back up then you can get in and support them

[gobs]

If it's earlies, I would not bother, just thin them a bit out, starting to harvest early.

If they are main crop and have space, could even replant somewhere, water in well.

[Trillium]

it'll be tricky to move those main crops, but it's worth a try. Try to scoop up as much soil as possible around any baby spuds and gently place them into their new holes. Try to disrupt the growth as little as possible.

[bb_odiham]

Thanks for the ideas.
They are "home guard" with plenty of foliage. I really had no idea the plants would get so big and take up so much space.
When I say they are too close together, I really mean it - the only way to see the "rows" is right at ground level, where I did a few lots of earthing up while the spuds were growing. Now there's no space to earth anything up.

I also don't have enough space on my plot to replant

I'm going to do some careful prodding around on some of the most damaged plants to see what's happening under ground. If there's not much spud growth, I'll go ahead with removing some rows and then heavily earth up and prop up the remaining plants. If there's a lot of spuds, then I'll just try and earth up the whole lot - although it's going to take a LOT of soil, so best I start prepping some up!

[bb_odiham]

Wow!

Just had a quick exploratory dig, at first, I only found a tiny little spud and thought I'd have a small crop. A little dig a bit further in revealed some loverly big old tubers - very healthy looking too!

I think we're having some home grown spuds with tea tonight, I'm also going to prep up some some plain soil without any compost and try to earth up as much as possible.

Yippee ! - spuds for tea !

[peapod]

well done BB

I cant wait to try my own spuds at Christmas :-)

Enjoy!!!

[bb_odiham]

Thanks - this is just so cool, it's the first time I've grown anything with substance to it!
Last year, it was a very unsuccessful mustard/cress/lettuce "beginners" attempt, which got munched by slugs

I've been given a few tomato plants by friends, so I went out and got a stand up mini greenhouse type shelf thingy, going to put that on my plot somewhere and just start experimenting with different vege and herbs - chilli, toms, basil, coriander etc.

Loving it!

[iwantanallotment]

Well done bb, they'll be lovely  
re the plastic greenhouse, make sure you secure it well on your plot - they've a tendency to blow away!