[ck2day]

Hi,  I am fairly new to growing veg and understand about earthing up my potatoes.  The question I have is:

As I have planted them abit too close together is there anything else I can earth them up with apart from earth     The rows are planted about 18 inches apart and due to the ground being newly cultivated and me not having a rotavator or the time in the spring the soil between is still fairly compacted.

They are growing well and the stem above ground are over 2 feet tall, do I need to earth up still.

Any advice will be helpful

Claire

[DD.]

You do need to cover the roots with something, otherwise you'll get green, toxic spuds.

Never had this problem, so I'm no expert, but I do understand others have used things like grass clippings to good effect.

[woodburner]

The no dig method says to use straw to start with then when they are covered as much as they would be if you were using the normal method, then cover the straw with grass clippings to exclude light.

Not sure how high that would be though as this is my first year growing them, and they haven't grown that much yet.

[fletch]

I earthed mine up yesterday (never grown spuds before) and some of the plants were quite small so have ended up almost buried, with just a tiny bit of leaf showing.

Is this ok?

[muntjac]

use cardboard or anything dark to protect them i have even used bin liners ,just peg them down well ...the ones you have just buried wil be fine they wil just keep coming .just water them well top feed with potash when the flowers set " werks for me "

[ck2day]

thanks for the advice.  i buried them originally in trenches under straw and chicken pooh and cant see any potatoes. Will cover the stems with extra "stuff" tonight.

Thanks once again