Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: grosmont50 on June 18, 2011, 08:25

Title: HELP HELP nipping out spuds
Post by: grosmont50 on June 18, 2011, 08:25
moning all , my pots are growing like crazy and i am a little concerned that all the growth is above ground do i need to nip them out
Title: Re: HELP HELP nipping out spuds
Post by: DD. on June 18, 2011, 08:33
Short answer - no!

Leaves are the plant's food factory, nip them off & you'll reduce production.
Title: Re: HELP HELP nipping out spuds
Post by: grosmont50 on June 18, 2011, 08:40
thats great thank you, so will i gat more pots with feeding the foliage ??
Title: Re: HELP HELP nipping out spuds
Post by: DD. on June 18, 2011, 08:54
After planting mine with horse manure, I just leave them to get on with it. I've never given them an additional feed. No doubt others will have a different approach.
Title: Re: HELP HELP nipping out spuds
Post by: hogwarden on June 18, 2011, 09:05
 :( This `horse manure` keeps cropping(?) up in potato chats and I always thought you were advised to not use freshly manured ground with roots&spuds?-have I misunderstood something here..? :blink:
Title: Re: HELP HELP nipping out spuds
Post by: DD. on June 18, 2011, 09:11
Roots - no, but spuds are not a root crop. They're tubers.
Title: Re: HELP HELP nipping out spuds
Post by: grosmont50 on June 18, 2011, 09:33
ROOTS / TUBORS getting technical now ,whats the differance??
Title: Re: HELP HELP nipping out spuds
Post by: Grubbypaws on June 18, 2011, 09:36
Why shouldnt you use manure for root crops?

Are my carrots and parsnips in danger?
Title: Re: HELP HELP nipping out spuds
Post by: lazydog on June 18, 2011, 09:39
ROOTS / TUBORS getting technical now ,whats the differance??

Tubers are grown from the roots like peas come from the stems above ground where as root crops are the root,which if the ground is to rich will not grow long and straight looking for food but will folk
Title: Re: HELP HELP nipping out spuds
Post by: Salmo on June 18, 2011, 10:56
A tuber is a swollen root or underground stem. A potato is a stem tuber and stores energy as starch.
Title: Re: HELP HELP nipping out spuds
Post by: Alastair-I on June 18, 2011, 11:32
moning all , my pots are growing like crazy and i am a little concerned that all the growth is above ground do i need to nip them out

Without knowing the variety of potato.. .. it could be entirely normal growth.  Some varieties will easily grow to 3'-plus (and considerably "plus" in the case of some heritage varieties).
Title: Re: HELP HELP nipping out spuds
Post by: savbo on June 18, 2011, 12:54
Why shouldnt you use manure for root crops?

Are my carrots and parsnips in danger?
probably the worst case is you'll have weird looking (stumpy/forked) carrots and parsnips but they'll taste fine. the usual recommendation is to grow them in ground manured the previous season