Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Hitwoman on May 05, 2019, 09:45
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Hi I have some potatoes in pots that will need earthing up soon. I was going to do this with compost, but I was wondering if I could mix in grass clippings? Any thoughts or has anyone tried it? Thanks in advance.
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Can't think of any reason not to (as long as the grass wasn't treated with a selective weedkiller of course!)
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The one downside of using grass clippings is introducing grass seeds into your growing space.
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I spread some grass cuttings over the top of my potatoes a couple of weeks ago and they really did not like it. The leaves started to turn yellow and crinkle. I decided to brush off the remaining grass cuttings and within a couple of weeks the plants looked a lot healthier and greener. The cuttings I used may have been a bit acidic because there was a lot of fur tree bits in it.
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The cuttings I used may have been a bit acidic because there was a lot of fur tree bits in it.
That's a possibility, although perhaps you applied the clippings a bit too generously (if it rains before the haulms have grown back through into the light, grass clippings can become a dense mat, which of course is not the object of the exercise.)
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Not only around the halms, but in the intervening trenches too, as the rain (?) can then run down and along and be kept from evaporation.
The same effect can be used for toms, as they love having their hard-won rainwater conserved around their roots, and perhaps a little bit beyond!
You can even add a little bit of BFB or Growmore at the same time as this then becomes a slow-release matrix, but as stated above, let the stems stay free to let them think they're in the right place at the right time!
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I spread some grass cuttings over the top of my potatoes a couple of weeks ago and they really did not like it. The leaves started to turn yellow and crinkle. I decided to brush off the remaining grass cuttings and within a couple of weeks the plants looked a lot healthier and greener. The cuttings I used may have been a bit acidic because there was a lot of fur tree bits in it.
Just a thought, as grass cuttings are green waste, as they got down in the soil, they will rob it of nitrogen. Maybe this could be the cause of the yellowing?
Edited to fix quote.
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The cuttings I used may have been a bit acidic because there was a lot of fur tree bits in it.
That's a possibility, although perhaps you applied the clippings a bit too generously (if it rains before the haulms have grown back through into the light, grass clippings can become a dense mat, which of course is not the object of the exercise.)
I would say you are right, lesson learnt.
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I think so too and also piles of newly-mown grass give off quite a bit of heat which won't have helped.
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I think so too and also piles of newly-mown grass give off quite a bit of heat which won't have helped.
Good point, I had not thought of the heat.