[blackbob]

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.

[Trillium]

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.

[rikknikk]

Great Thanks - new job for the weekend then!

[Carrotcake]

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.

[Grecian Gardener]

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.