Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: nitiram on November 21, 2005, 15:06
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Have had my lottie since July this year, in Grimsby,N.E Lincs. Am busy planning crops for next year and have opted to grow Lady Balfour a 'second early' and Juliette which is a salad potato...don't ask me why just liked the sound of them! Trouble is, have only grown potatoes at home in a big plant pot and have absolutely no idea how to grow them on a larger scale. Asking around the old folk on the site (I am the only female and the only one under 60, just) has produced conflicting advice so am still confused.
So....how do I plant out potatoes...do I:
a) dig a big trench, plant at bottom then slowly earth up
b) plant potatoes very deep and not really earth up
c) earth up first then plant potatoes deep into the heap.
Is there any different treatment for salad potatoes????
All the books i have read, and even the seed catalogues assume that everyone knows how to plant pots...well I don't!! Help
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Hi Nitiram
My method for potatoes is to dig over the soil then to draw a trench about 6 inches deep into which I put comfrey leaves and then place the seed potatoes on top of this drawing the soil over so it starts off level.
As the haulm grows, draw soil up over most of the haulm (especially if frost threatens).
The potatoes form at or just below ground level and we need to prevent light from making them turn green.
A good handful of fish, blood and bone helps them after about 6 weeks as well.
You can just trowel a hole and drop them in if you wish, but you still need to draw soil up the plant later.
A method I have not tried is to place the seed potato onto the soil or some compost and cover with black plastic or straw, cutting a slit in the plastic to allow the haulm to grow through. The idea is that the plastic / straw stops weeds and light getting to the crop and you can harvest very easily.
If you have eelworm on your plot, sow agricultural mustard after you harvest the potatoes. This confuses the little beasts into developing prematurely and keeps them down.
My big enemy is the slug and this year I am going to try nematodes to see if I can keep the damage down.
Hope this helps
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Explain about the black plastic idea....don't I have to plant them in a hole first? Where do the potatoes grow if not planted? It sounds a good way of growing spuds though. How do i know if I have eel worm on my plot? Probably a daft question..
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As I understand it, you just lay the seed potato on the ground and cover with the plastic. The potato then roots into the ground and the haulm is pulled through a slit in the plastic.
Come harvest time, you lift the plastic and pick up the potatoes. As I say, I've not tried it but that's what I have heard.
Found this on eelworm>
Symptoms: This microscopic pest can survive in the soil for 20 years in the absence of any potato crop. It tends to be common on allotments, where potatoes are often grown without using a crop rotation.
Infected plants will tend to die back early, sometimes in patches, and yields will be reduced. Where soil is severely infested, growth and cropping may be minimal. To confirm the presence of eelworm, check in July/early August. Carefully expose the roots of a potato plant and look for pinhead sized white, yellow or brown cysts on the roots. A magnifying glass may help!
Hoe that helps
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The plastic sounds interesting John....About the eel worms...I have to grow potataoes to see if they get infected? can't I check before I plant to see if I have eel worms?
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I don't think so - they're not that bad a pest if kept in check by rotation. The mustard trick was used by people growing potatoes on the same patch on alternate years.
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I layout my spuds on the soil surface, then dig a trench to the side of them throwing the dug soil onto the row of potatoes. Once haulms show through I cover with lawn mowings. This is the way I was shown by my Grandad some 40 years ago and it has worked well for me and it did for him also.
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Never heard of this way of doig it either. Does it make any difference how you plant the earlies, second earlies, main crop, salad spuds?
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I think some people on our site 'plant' on the surface and put soil on top. Personally I would worry about them getting enough water but I suspect the lawn mowings act as a water retaining mulch.
I'm fairly conservative in the way I do things - if it works, don't fix it.
Attended a NVS lecture on Tuesday. He grew his potatoes in peat filled bags which were sat into a trench. He mixed the peat (5,800 litres of it using 2 cement mixers!) with nutrients and fed regularly as well as watering with seep hoses connected to a custom built valving system
Good way to win prizes at a show but a bit extreme for our purposes, methinks!
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Sorry, senior moment - forgot to answer your question..
Does it make any difference how you plant the earlies, second earlies, main crop, salad spuds?
No - except you should space 2nd earlies and maincrop more than 1st earlies
I go with around a foot apart in 2 foot rows for 1st earlie, 15 inches for 2nd and about 18 inches in 30 inch rows for maincrop.
'Salad' potatoes are usually 2nd earlies - I love Anya, which is a knobbly spud but tasty and productive. Charlotte have been mixed - one good year, one bad.
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You are right about the water. I irregate regularly by filling up the trenches between the rows with water from our well.
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What's your soil like? Mine is pretty heavy clay, but improving as I keep working it.
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Im on the river Wye floodplain near Hay-on-Wye and our soil is river gravel and I mean gravel. Raised beds for carrots and parsnip etc.
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Water is going to be a bigger problem for you than me. Our heavy soil holds water well and the underlying clay pan layer acts as a seal. This is a benefit in some ways and a curse in others.
Whatever soil you have, it seems the answer is the same - lots of organic matter!
Hay-on-Wye - lovely area of the country :)
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Wonderful area until the river comes up into my fields
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Wonderful area until the river comes up into my fields
Tempted to ask how it is for growing rice!
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The way it floods is 4ft of water one day and gone the next! its just a b***dy fag having to bring the animals in.
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Animals? Please tell - do you have a farm or smallholding? What animals? Yes - I'm being nosy!
Incidentally, you should have seen the allotment rep's face when I mentioned the constitution allowed us to keep pigs. Now I have no intention of keeping pigs but he doesn't know that :!:
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Yes I have a smallholding and have seen you on other sites I visit (different user name). I only have 2.5 acres which includes veg gardens and fields. I keep the usual hens ducks geese a few sheep and pigs in the winter, though I dont have any pigs yet this year.
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Yes please, so tell Olde9856.
I liked the way you and your forbears grew potatoes and wrote that down to try it .......
Until that is I saw you next posting when you said that you filled the trenches with water.
There is not water on our site and we live in a very dry area, so I guess that way is out for me.
Sounds like you like the life that I have always wanted to - small holding, animals, self sufficient.
I think that John has the same drea too????
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Oh yes, I have that dream too - only thing is that I kept trying to make enough to do it as property prices shot up. Nearly did it a few years back but the dot com boom made me a millionaire for a month and the crash took it away again!
Now I'm on the wrong side of 50, I'm not looking for quite as much as I was. Val (my wife) reckons we should jump to Spain. 2 hectares and a house for 39,000 pounds does sound interesting.
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Sounds a bargain!
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Is it absolutely essential to chit? I'm running out of space to put mine and I was considering bunging a few rows in as they come to see what happens. Has anyone any experience with this?
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Is it absolutely essential to chit? I'm running out of space to put mine and I was considering bunging a few rows in as they come to see what happens. Has anyone any experience with this?
Last year I ran out of time and space, and in the end 'cheated' with my main crops and worried about it, as they went straight in - no chitting - and they were brilliant. I just think that chitting gets the earlies off to a quicker start.
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Bang on! Chitting is much more help with earlies than maincrop. In fact many people don't both chitting maincrop at all.
We've plenty of room though, unless some one comes to stay in the spare bedroom :lol:
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Hello, I'm still a bit confused about chitting. I got a selection of seed potatoes today at the Hampshire Potato day. Ended up making a bit of random choice (since its all new) and got a range from first early to late maincrop. Should I start them all chitting now or should I store the maincrops for a while? If I need to store them, any recommendations?
Thanks
Martin
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I'd start chitting now if I was you. It can't do any harm even if some people aren't sure it is of benefit to the maincrop.
The difference between chitting potatoes and them sprouting in a bag is the light. When exposed to light, you get short fairly thick shoots which give the potatoes a head start when you plant them.
Honestly, there isn't much too this. Just stick them into a seed tray or shallow box in somewhere cool but frost free with light and that's it :)
So what varieties did you buy? How much did you pay? Details - we're a nosy bunch, you know!
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I'd start chitting now if I was you.
Thanks, I've now got them in egg boxes on the windowsill in an unheated bedroom.
So what varieties did you buy? How much did you pay? Details - we're a nosy bunch, you know!
I got 8 of each of the following:
Red Duke of York (1st early)
Maris Peer (2nd early)
Maris Piper (early maincrop)
Sante (early maincrop)
Sarpo Axona (late maincrop)
First 4 were 8 for £1, and the Sarpo were 20p each, so total cost £5.60
I realised after I got home (or rather, my wife pointed it out!) that I had got 4 floury flesh and one waxy, so maybe I didn't get the balance quite right. Never mind, this is my first year growing vegetables so all part of the experiment! (Got to finish constructing the beds yet, as I'm terracing a slope)
P.S Potato day was well worth going to for a couple of hours. Details at http://www.hhdra.org.uk/potatoday.htm. With getting on 150 varieties it was difficult to choose!
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I'm trying Sarpo Axona this year (first year it's been generally available) - the Sarpo Mira was very productive and slug resistant as well as blight resistant. High hopes.
Good luck with the landscaping - hard work.
I think it may pay you to pop into a garden centre or suchlike for a few more than you have. Mind you, we reckon I grew twice as many as needed last year LOL
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I never chit any of my spuds and to be honest it does not seem to make any difference. Perhapse the first earlies benefit slightly but not much.
I often find I tend to break off the shoots when planting!
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I must admit my attitude is that I need to keep them somewhere anyways so chitting is no additional work - except I spray with SM3 seaweed solution every 10 days or so.
Not really had a problem with sprouts breaking - in fact the only real problem with spuds has been the slugs. I have ordered nematodes this year, so hope there will be less damage.
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Yeh slugs are always a problem on everything bar first earlies. The nematode solution is good but pricey for a large area
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Expensive, yes. I'm just so fed up of getting really nice potatoes only to find the slugs have been there before. Often it's a small hole on the outside and the inside is hollowed out. You don't find it until you take it out of the oven.
I've tried slug pellets and traps but to little effect. I think some soils are just slug friendly. Of course there is a warning that nematodes don't work so well on the heavy clay soils. (Typical!)
There's another site near us where Larry has a plot and the soil is very sandy. He grows his potatoes there and has hardly any slug damage. Different set of problems entirely - the soil dries out very quickly and needs lots of nutrients to be much good.
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i know my dad used to tell me that slugs dont like cow muck when its in the soil, has anyone else ever heared this or was it one of his many tall storys :?:
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I'd not heard that - I would have thought it would make things worse as the slugs like damp and cowmuck holds the water.
If anyone knows different please let us know :)
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Hi there, although I started my little veg patch off 2 years ago, I haven't done much gardening for over 25 years owing to working in london and having a lonnnnnnng commute every day. At the moment I am a lady of leisure??? hah and wanted to grow all my own veg. Last year I was a bit late in buying my first seed potatoes, so I put them in as soon as I bought them. This year, I bought my seed potatoes earlier and they are chitting in my shed, but hubby says the frost has got at them and they are going green. Potatoes go green in the light anyway don't they? He has covered them in enviro fleece, so do you think they will be okay? As the day got warmer the other day, they started to get a bit damp looking, so do you think they were defrosting, or just sweating a bit? They only have little sprouts at the moment which haven't turned black or anything, sorry for sounding like a pleb. :(
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Hi Grannie Annie
If you don't ask, you don't know!
It's hard to tell what state your spuds are in - they don't like freezing is certain. Going a bit green and slightly wrinkled isn't a problem You need to work out if they are still alive. If the shoots are growing then you're probably OK. If not - it's not too late to get some more and start again.
Chitting helps with first earlies but isn't requireed for a crop. You just get it a little faster.
Having just done 2 days in London, I'm so happy you escaped the place! Great to visit as a tourist but working there is a nother thing :)
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Hi John, just thought I'd let you know, looked at my chitting spuds yesterday under their fleec in the shed, and their shoots are still growing, not quickly, but at least they are still there.
I really must learn not to listen to the other half, thinks he knows everything because he grew a bit of veg when he was at school. came into the greenhouse yesterday when I was putting some tomato seeds in small pots. you are supposed to propogate them first he says. I said what do you mean? he said well you put them into seeds trays first then into pots, and I replied, and when you've run out of seed trays, you use what you've got available!!! That shut him up!! lol