Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: dno71 on February 13, 2010, 22:29
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ok this is probably a stupid question!
how do i use potash for my potatoes etc do i just put it in the bed before planting? please help!
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I thought potash was for tomatoes and other flower / fruiting plants rather than root crops.
I'd apply a potato fertiliser at the time of planting, or fish blood and bone rather than a high potash feed.
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potash is important for potato tuber growth and overall plant health, but it must be balanced with nitrogen to avoid unwanted effects. Fresh ash is not recommended as it acidifies the soil too much and throws off the balance.
Some can be mixed into the soil before planting time, then as small sidedressings later.
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many thanks for the advice!
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I'd go with Trillium's advice about balancing the nutrients you add but feel I should point out that the salts found in wood ash are mostly carbonates, so it tends to be alkaline rather than acidic.
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Wood ash is alkaline.
If you run water through it you get a highly alkaline liquid called Lye that is mainly sodium and pottasium hydroxides, and can be used to make soap from animal fat scraps.
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Most people know more about fertilisers than me, so definitely go with what Trillium said!
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Good catch. I meant to say alkaline and for whatever reason typed in acidify.
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get yourself a comfry plant.
Drop one leaf in the bottom of the hole then your spud on top.
you can also put the leafs round the plants as you earth up.
comfry has a high potash content,
I was given this advice last year, and i belive i had a better crop for it. :)
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Should be spread and dug in with your winter digging regeime, no new fertilizer should be incorporated upon planting as this will lead to 'scab', apply general fertiliser ie Growmore in the growwing season
Good luck. hope you have the tubers 'sprutting'
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If you want good potato crops, you DON`T use potash you use phosphates. Especially Superphosphate. And these fertilizers CAN be used during the growing season. :D :D :tongue2:
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David, have you read the findings of this experiment?
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/112604302/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
Phosphates must be added in high numbers and quantity (and price) to get good yields, whereas potash, balanced with nitrogen, will give higher yields, better tuber quality and better storage capability. :tongue2: :D
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Couldn`t open it Trillium. As far as I know, potash is used to encourage fruiting and flowering, whereas phosphates are used to encourage rooting and the developement of root crops. This is known fact, not some experiment. As for price, superphosphate and sulphate of potash are about the same price for the same quantity. :D
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dno71 - please oh please tell us what sort of potash fertilizer you are planning to apply and what sort of soil you have and someone can give you a good answer.
Several of the answers you have given conflict and some are wrong!!!
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dno71 - please oh please tell us what sort of potash fertilizer you are planning to apply and what sort of soil you have and someone can give you a good answer.
Several of the answers you have given conflict and some are wrong!!!
I agree!
An excess of any one nutrient is bad news (expensive, potentially polluting, can upset the soil chemistry and may have the opposite effect to what you are after).
I you're a beginner you won't go far wrong using a balanced fertiliser like Growmore or pelleted chicken manure in the recommended dosages. You do eventually need to get to know your soil and your crops but plants are actually quite good at obtaining what they need from the soil given half a chance.
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Well the problem is that applying solid or liquid fertiliser to soil, or even large amounts of compost is a bit random and haphazard, thats why they invented hydroponics, its the only controlled accurate way to maintain NPK levels in a growing media.
Potatoes need potassium to make the tubers swell, and it needs to be about 14:14:21. Lye is high in potassium but very alkaline. Seaweed extract is also hi K, mainly because seawater is about 400 ppm, as opposed to tap water, which is about 3 ppm.
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Which came first, plants growing successfully in their natural environments, or hydroponics?
I didn't get the impression that dno71 was aiming to grow potatoes hydroponically!
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Which came first, plants growing successfully in their natural environments, or hydroponics?
I didn't get the impression that dno71 was aiming to grow potatoes hydroponically!
Lol i know, i was just pointing out its the most accurate way to do it. Thats why its the preferred method of cannabis farms!!
Potatoes hydroponically, interesting. You would have to have black plastic water trays with black tops to keep the light off the tubers - or how about putting black dye in the liquid ?
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Don't know you well enough to know if you are kidding!!
Just hope dno71 hasn't been put off growing his/her own vegetables for life! :nowink:
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Returning to the original question: I use Vitax Q4 which has a NPK of 5:5:7. I apply it at the recommended rate when I hoe up the plants.
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ever wish you had never started something lol!!! :wacko:
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dno71 - please oh please tell us what sort of potash fertilizer you are planning to apply and what sort of soil you have and someone can give you a good answer.
I can tell you exactly what you need to know if you answer my questions.
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Potatoes hydroponically, interesting. You would have to have black plastic water trays with black tops to keep the light off the tubers - or how about putting black dye in the liquid ?
would used engine oil work? it's nice and dark...
:)
MS
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ever wish you had never started something lol!!! :wacko:
That's gardeners for you :D They'll come to an agreement eventually. Round on my site they put something like comfrey in as they plant up and things grow fine. :D
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Which came first, plants growing successfully in their natural environments, or hydroponics?
Ah, but which produces bigger crops?
Plants growing in their natural environments have to compete against everything else out there which is why there are crab apples in hedgerows and and nice juicy pippins in orchards. Gardening is a completely unnatural practice...unless of course you just go out and scatter seed willy-nilly and leave it to it's own devices. So I add a little fertilizer. Base dressing of superphosphate and top dressing of potash once the spuds are well away. This is added to each spud plot every 3rd year as I rotate.
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We've simply added some rotted cow manure every fall to the new spud patch and we get more potatoes than we know what to do with. We don't even side dress them during the season, just hill them and try to keep the weeds under control. this year we're cutting back the patch size so we don't have to give away so many.
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I've bought pelleted potato fertilizer this year - the site used have a plentiful supply of horse manure delivered into a communal area but since certain plot holders took more than their fair share and left those whose were not quick enough with nothing I thought this pelleted stuff will have to suffice for this year.