[Shallot]

Hello all

I'm having a ponder about what to grow this year on my previously uncultivated plot (It was previously a playing field)

I am considering popping in four raised beds of potatoes, I am yet to get the four raised beds put in yet as the ground is still soggy. I should be able to get cracking once it warms up a bit, I'm itching to use my new tiller but I get the feeling I will need to give the ground a quick forking over before firing up the tiller

Has anyone else gone down this route of starting with potatoes? I reckon planting and harvesting potatoes will help break up the compacted soil

All the best

Mark

[Yorkie]

If you could pop your location into your forum profile it will help with accurate answers, but it does sound as though it's too wet for now.

I don't have a rotavator / tiller but I do think I've read on here that they aren't great at the initial breaking-through of compacted soil - you need to do the first bit (someone will correct this if I'm wrong).

Potatoes are often said to be a good crop for a recently uncultivated plot because the action of planting, earthing up and harvesting is a good way to help break up the soil.

One thing I would observe is that you should be prepared for wireworms.  They are a common pest in ground which was recently grassland, and they love spuds!  Their numbers decrease over the first 2-3 years, I think.

There is a method for tempting the wireworms into action early and thus protecting your crops, but I can't remember what it is - or how effective it is.  Somebody else may have a better memory ...

[3759allen]

i started growing in my new garden last year that hadn't been touched for years. full of un kept grass, weeds and brambles.

i had to dig mine to get all the dodo and rubble out, then planted over half of it with potatoes to break up the ground. done a pretty good job of it as this year was an awful lot easier than last.

i did have trouble with wire worm, but i was still able to use a lot of the crop. just a pain not being able to use them for bakers and digging around after peeling. i squashed as many as i could see and making an effort to remove as much grass and weeds to try and starve them to get rid of them. i'll find out if theres less this year, fingers crossed for now.

personally i would say a tiller would spread the weeds and grass routes, i would say better to dig and remove as much as you can.

[Yorkie]

Good point about the weeds, 3759.  Using a tiller or rotavator on unweeded land will chop any perennial weeds up into little bits.

Shallot, what sort of weeds do you have?  What are the roots of the grass like - nice and fibrous, or long thin white piano wire-like?

[Rallychef]

My plot was a green field site 3 years ago, I made my 4 beds by cutting the turf and stacking, Grass to grass/soil to soil, then worked the soil underneath, no wireworm problems with the first years crop. Last year I gradually worked through the turf pile which where  by then good loam, picking out any stray couch grass roots and returning the soil to the beds......hard work, but good results

regards Ian D

[Eightball]

Potatoes do seem to be pretty good job at digging the soil for you. On the beds I had potatoes in the soil was noticeably better after I harvested them.

[DD.]

The potatoes don't dig the soil for you. You do.

You plant them, you hill them, you dig them out. The spud does none of this!   

[surbie100]

For Yorkie - do you mean sacrificial potatoes/wireworm traps?

Dig a series of four-inch deep holes throughout the planting area, pop in half a potato, cover with soil, and mark with a stick. A day or two before proper potato planting, you can dig up these traps, which now hopefully contain pesky wireworms ready to be disposed of.

[m1ckz]

just what i was thinking DD  lol

[al78]

There is a method for tempting the wireworms into action early and thus protecting your crops, but I can't remember what it is - or how effective it is.  Somebody else may have a better memory ...

Growing mustard I believe fools the wireworms into thinking there is a food source and encourages the eggs to hatch, then they die when there is no suitable food for them.

[Yorkie]

For Yorkie - do you mean sacrificial potatoes/wireworm traps?

Dig a series of four-inch deep holes throughout the planting area, pop in half a potato, cover with soil, and mark with a stick. A day or two before proper potato planting, you can dig up these traps, which now hopefully contain pesky wireworms ready to be disposed of.

That's what I had in mind, I think - ta.

[diospyros]

There is a method for tempting the wireworms into action early and thus protecting your crops, but I can't remember what it is - or how effective it is.  Somebody else may have a better memory ...

Growing mustard I believe fools the wireworms into thinking there is a food source and encourages the eggs to hatch, then they die when there is no suitable food for them.

I think mustard is for potato cyst nematode? but the same sort of idea.

I've grown potatoes in converted lawns, under cardboard and grass clippings, but buried the turf a spit down and had no problems.

[Shallot]

Good point about the weeds, 3759.  Using a tiller or rotavator on unweeded land will chop any perennial weeds up into little bits.

Shallot, what sort of weeds do you have?  What are the roots of the grass like - nice and fibrous, or long thin white piano wire-like?

The weeds were basically over grown grass before I battered them to death with Rosate 36, I sprayed the lot last year and theres no active growth now

[Headgardener22]

One method I have seen is to plant spuds about every 18 inches in a line. Cut a square hole about a spade width square, take out the plug of turf, dig down to about 9 inches, put a spud in a spade of compost replace the plug upside down and move on.

The crop isn't as good as it would be if you had dug over the area first but it let's you focus on the rest of the area.

The spuds don't dig the ground, you do in three steps (planting, earthing up and harvesting) but if the other option is to do nothing with the space, its probably worth while.