Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: hectic on March 23, 2009, 10:23
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I've never grown spuds before and bought some Charlottes a couple of weeks ago and put them in a tray for chitting. I have a couple of days off so fancy planting them out so would appreciate your opinion on whether they are ready please?
The shoots are approx 1cm long - do they need to be longer than that?
Also I am planting them in my raised beds which are approx 9" deep and have heard if you plant under black plastic sheets (or in my case some left over pond liner) you dont need to build them up. Anyone else use this method?
Many thanks - piccy of my spuds below :)
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They're fine to plant out as they are. You don't actually need to chit them before planting but it does give them a head start and should give you an earlier crop.
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Thanks Greg much appreciated, beats cleaning the carpets haha!
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Planting under black plastic used to be popular but my advice is to keep to the time tested methods of growing. Under plastic works but slugs can play havoc and yields are probably not so good.
Work the bed so that there is a good depth of loose soil. Plant the seed potatoes about 4 inches under, either make a shallow furrow or plant individually with a trowell or bulb planter.
Pull just enough of a mound over the row to cover the seed and tell you where the row is. When the shoots emerge pull more soil over them so that just the top leaves show. This protects them from frost and prevents greening, it also kills any weeds. You will need to do this anout once a week.
Continue until you run out of soil. After that be prepared to cover with fleece if frost threatens. I am not a great fan of 24 inch rows. Wider rows, 28 or 30 inches, give more soil for earthing up.