Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: teflon on May 05, 2009, 23:02
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I've got some shoots coming through on my potatoes(about 2-3 inches) Should i cover these shoots completely when i earth up or leave the top of the shoot free of soil?
Cheers
Tel.
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Cover them completely until the last chance of frost has passed is what I'm doing.
Am sure someone more knowledgeable will be along shortly :)
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Covering them is a good idea for frost protection.....but.... plants need the suns energy.
What is the nature of your site? Is it possible that they are in a position susceptible to frost? What I do is once the leaves start showing I manure between the rows. Spuds can get a wee nip of frost and survive. It would need to be a hard frost to kill the plant. Keep an eye on the forecast and earth up as the plant grows, dont be too fussy about covering some leaves when earthing up.
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The little devils keep sticking their heads up though, don't they! ;)
I've earthed mine up twice recently - from dead flat to Mount Etna and still they are determined to stick their necks out.... ::)
Best way is to keep an eye on local weather forecasts and then dash about covering up if frost threatens.... I've used grass-mowings before now when I am desperate to cover the tops and simply can't earth-up any more.
Fleece or sheets of newspaper with the odd clod of earth on to keep them in place will do the trick.... I've found, anyway.
Eventually.... when chance of frost is gone let them grow up and get on with the job of making those lovely tubers! :)
Butter at the ready for some tasty earlies.. :)
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In addition to the above posts, there's a few more answers on this thread too (http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=35611.0) which you might find of interest
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hope this helps heres a pic from a few years ago
before
(http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o152/shaungill/READYFOREARTHINGUP.jpg)
after
(http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o152/shaungill/ALLEARTHEDUP.jpg)
the end
(http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o152/shaungill/spudsjune07.jpg)
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Very nice Shaun! :)
I bet that lot filled a fair few hessian sacks ;)
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Wow.....did you eat them all?!
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Hi Shaun
I am also new to veg growing. My potatoes at the moment are about just sprouting through. Should I leave them to get to the height re your 1st photo? I also see that you haven't coverd completley re 2nd photo. Is there a reason for that?
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Potatoes mustn't be completely covered when earthing up as they still need light to grow. The idea of earthing up is to bring soil/whatever to cover the original ground level where young tubers will pop out of the ground and up part of the sides of the plant to ensure all the tubers remain covered after any rain flattens the mounding a bit.
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Hi Shaun
I am also new to veg growing. My potatoes at the moment are about just sprouting through. Should I leave them to get to the height re your 1st photo? I also see that you haven't coverd completley re 2nd photo. Is there a reason for that?
if i remember that was the 2nd time i earthed those up,the 1st time i would have completely covered them,
heres this afternoons earthing up session,some are covered others are not,
(http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o152/shaungill/DSC00099.jpg)
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So, Shaun, what would you do if frost threatens? ???
I belt down to cover mine as best I can....and as completely as I can one way or another.
Frost ought to come with a sell-by date so we know when it is over for the year ;)
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if we get any more frosts here (i dont think we will) then its only going to yellow those top leaves,and the plant will recover in no time at all.
I have a row of earlies that were fleeced over until a few weeks ago.they are too big now to earth over :unsure:
the farmer around the corner has took his fleece off his earlies so i just copied him ;)
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Sounds good to me ;)
I was wondering how farmers go about protecting acres of the things once they have sprouted up through the ridges...
I will panic less each time it feels chilly in the evening.
Thanks Shaun :)
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Shaun they look fantastic :D iv run out of earth on my tiny patch so they are up and running now. :D
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This might seem a daft question to mor experienced plotters but is there any reason why you cant plant spuds into already formed up ridges so as to save the time of ridging them up later,just plant them deeper
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im no expert teabag but i suppose you could.Theres some great sense of satisfaction with earthing up though i think.
Mind you on my small patch this year my new idea was to plant in troughs then fill the holes to earth up then 2nd time earthed from either side,as last year i never had space so its worked well.
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Hi all I did ask on our allotments the other day about frost and my potatoes and I was told that if we got a frost we could hose the frost off early in the morning to take the frost off.
Was this right??
I'm still earthing up our's.
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"if we got a frost we could hose the frost off early in the morning to take the frost off.
Was this right??"
Yup, you'll have to be up early though - before the sun gets on them. 05:30 at the latest I would think ...
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This might seem a daft question to mor experienced plotters but is there any reason why you cant plant spuds into already formed up ridges so as to save the time of ridging them up later,just plant them deeper
That's what we do Teabag. We dig a trench, put them in at the appropriate spacings and earth them up to the height in Shaun's photos. It does save time later when there is so much else to do and we get a good crop. Our earlies now have foliage showing at the top of the ridges.
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Shaun
You look like your a potato expert so question for you. Am I supposed to feed potatoes? If so how often and with what.
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if we get any more frosts here (i dont think we will) ...
Wow you're a brave man Shaun to say that! :D
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I am well impressed, Shaun :D We just have a few shortish rows of spuds and that takes long enough to earth up/ keep covered when cold nights . You must work like a trojan :D
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if we get any more frosts here (i dont think we will) ...
Wow you're a brave man Shaun to say that! :D
:) just my thought on the area that I live ;)
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Shaun
You look like your a potato expert so question for you. Am I supposed to feed potatoes? If so how often and with what.
i'm no expert but i do like spuds ;)
about feeding,when i plant a dig a trench and line it with muck, but I ran out of muck half way through planting,and have been reluctant to get any because of the weedkiller thingy,so i used potato fertilizer on the last few rows,it was about £5 for a 15kg bag from the plot shop.
some folks use chicken pellets or line the trenches with comfrey or home made compost.
one thing they do need is plenty of water.
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Chicken pellets does the job for my spuds (the soil is good) and, as for water, I just hope (???) for a drop of rain now and then ::)
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Chicken pellets does the job for my spuds (the soil is good) and, as for water, I just hope (???) for a drop of rain now and then ::)
I put quite a lot of composted manure at the bottom of the spuds and have never done more than that. I am wondering if pelleted Cm might be a good idea as an extra booster -- when do you add it?
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On large scale production the potatoes are placed into the ground and the ridges are formed on top of the potatoes so that you do not need to earth up anymore.
Earthing up on your plot is a good way of weeding at the same time so you could consider it time well spent.
I will show you what I mean on this video Hbtoc3SJnok The bed starts off flat and the machine drives through and plants the spuds then draws the ridges.