Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Flump on April 18, 2010, 12:44
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Hi,
I am confused again!my potatoes are starting to come through.If you earth them up to protect from frost,but they need the leaves to grow properly isn't it bad to cover the leaves? :wacko:
:wacko: also my lates are coming up before my earlies...that's not good is it? :ohmy:
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Just cover them up...........it's been done for years and years and they manage :)
As for lates before earlies, mine have done the same but it doesn't matter at all.
Just that the growth from some seed is stronger than others...but they all get there :)
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ok,thanks for that,stop panicking now hehe!
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Or else you muddled the earlies and lates before you planted them?
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Or else you muddled the earlies and lates before you planted them?
yes, that did cross my mind! ::)
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my earlies are just up with the lates not far behind but my second earlies are not up yet so dont worry the lates need a lot longer to get a good crop all is well it when none of them come up its time to worry. have a good crop.
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I don't earth mine up until a frost is forecast; I work on the basis that once they can see daylight they will stop pushing up so fast, so that gives me several chances to earth them up when frost is forecast. But even so my very early spuds, planted as late as I reasonably can, are normally a nightmare to try to keep the last few frosts off as they will have got very big by then ... the Mains are less of a problem in that regard.
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Hi,
I am confused again!my potatoes are starting to come through.If you earth them up to protect from frost,but they need the leaves to grow properly isn't it bad to cover the leaves? :wacko:
:wacko: also my lates are coming up before my earlies...that's not good is it? :ohmy:
The late spuds need a lot longer time growing in the ground so it is fine for them to come up first, as long as the frost does not get them too badly.
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I planted, in pots, some first earlies around March 17th, the past 5days I am having to earth up every day they are growing so fast. Last years weren't as vigorous at all.
Flump:
My lates did the same last year. Haven't got any lates this year. I have always just covered right over the green leaves, every time I see them. Easy for me as they are in the garden in pots.
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I planted, in pots, some first earlies around March 17th, the past 5days I am having to earth up every day they are growing so fast. Last years weren't as vigorous at all.
Flump:
My lates did the same last year. Haven't got any lates this year. I have always just covered right over the green leaves, every time I see them. Easy for me as they are in the garden in pots.
That's when I planted my earlie's,will be busy earthing up I think!but mine aren't vigorous like yours,just a few shoots so far.
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ok,thanks for that,stop panicking now hehe!
nowt to worry about, keep earthing up and you'll be fine.
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sorry new to this - what does earthing up mean?!
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It means heaping up the earth around the growing stems, so your spuds end up growing out of a ridge.
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That's when I planted my earlie's,will be busy earthing up I think!but mine aren't vigorous like yours,just a few shoots so far.
I'm on the South coast though Flump, so don't worry about yours being a bit slower.
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sorry new to this - what does earthing up mean?!
this * a bit nuts,and it's not how i would do it.but it will give ya the jist of earthing up and why it's needed.
y1j_83isHQY
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That's when I planted my earlie's,will be busy earthing up I think!but mine aren't vigorous like yours,just a few shoots so far.
I'm on the South coast though Flump, so don't worry about yours being a bit slower.
blooming hell just watched that through lol.she's as mad as a box of frogs,should have her own tv slot lol.
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sorry new to this - what does earthing up mean?!
As Yorkie said, it's pulling up soil from around the plant and covering it over, primarily at this time of year to prevent the soft top growth from frost kill. Once your frost season is over, there's little need to keep earthing up unless you have a variety which will keep producing more tubers from the main stem. Not all potato varieties do this.
The other reason is that regardless of how deep you plant your potato, the new plant tubers like to pop out of the ground and when they're exposed to light, the tubers turn green. As potatoes are part of the deadly nightshade family, the green parts can be poisonous depending on how much was ingested. So, by covering with more soil, you avoid this problem.
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Great Thanks - new job for the weekend then!
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When I planted my first spud crop, I remember covering them over for the first time and then going to work, worrying about them not being able to grow through the earthed up soil all day, so going back on the way home from work to carefully uncover the leaf tips and then having to cover them up again once I read that they should be covered right over ::)
I planted all my potatoes at the same time (mid March) and the maincrops are way ahead of the earlies too.
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A third and probably silly question but is it ok to earth up using compost? My logic behind this is that I will have to add compost to the beds at some stage and it seems easier to do it now and dig it in when the spuds are lifted.