[Eblana]

Folks I am really perplexed and I am hoping some of you might be able to shed some light on a problem I am having with two raised beds.

Last year I planted peas in one bed and brassicas in the other but only those sown in the bottom part of each bed germinated.  This year I planted potatoes in both these beds, all the potatoes in the bottom parts of the beds have come through but in the top part only about 5% of the potatoes have come up.  The top part of each bed is right in front of the poly tunnel and they were fairly wet (not waterlogged) about two weeks after the potatoes went in, the water ran off from them and into the soak away, could this have leeched all the good out of this end of the beds.  As the area is roughly the same area where I had no germination last year I am wondering if there is something wrong with the soil at that end of the beds.  Both beds were heavily manures in the winter of 2013.  Could I have gotten some manure with something in it in part of the bed and not in the rest.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Annen]

The ends of the beds all down the south side of my plot don't grow as well as the rest of the bed and I always put it down to them being in the shade of the adjoining fence. Could it be that? Or is that too obvious?
 In my plot it is especially noticeable in the strawberry bed, but also obvious in the onion bed.

[grinling]

Is the soakaway working? Can you find the seed potatoes or have they rotted away?
Peas hate wet soil.

[Goosegirl]

Have you had a good dig down in case there is something there that is causing the problem?

[Eblana]

I don't think shade is the problem.  I will dig down on Thursday when I am up there again and see if the seed potato has rotted and see how wet it is or is there anything there that might be causing the problem.

[Eblana]

Was up at the plot today.  Some more of the potatoes have popped through in the bed but they are still a bit sparse.  I think I have gotten to the bottom of the problem.  I have an automatic watering system in the Polytunnel which is on a timer, a couple of weeks back I found the PT was flooded because the timer wasn't working so the water was flowing permanently. It looks like this amount of water overwhelmed the soak away and has raised the water table, soaked the top half of the beds and rotted off some of the seed potatoes.

[Steve_LF]

They're fruiting and I've harvested a couple, all 3 plants look healthy in my polytunnel> Soon I'll have more than I can eat!