[bigben]

I have recently got my own allotment as well as looking after one for a friend. Mine is 340 square meters of extremely overgrown shoulder high brambles and rasberries that have gone wild. I have started to dig out roots and create beds for planting but I cannot see me managing the whole plot before I need to start planting stuff.

In a bid to allow me to make more of an inroad into it someone suggested hacking a bed or two down to ground level, covering with thick weed fabric and planting potatoes thru it.
Would this work without  first digging the ground - If so what about earthing up? Would I not just get a lot of green potatoes?

Another thought was to just cover the ground and get some cheap pots from a flower seller and plonk these on top to grow spuds in. Hopefully next year the ground would be in slightly better shape and I would have at least got a crop off it.

Anyone got any thoughts?

[grinling]

I've nearly completed clearing my plot after 3 years and planted earlies under weed fabric the first year.  Put the mat down , cut holes and planted through this. Did not need to earth up, but covered matting wth soil (prob over cautious about greening).
Pulled back matting and son collected potatoes.
On the downside is more slugs and wireworm than what  have now as it is dug better now.
Clear the area of weeds and do not plant too close together. Mat the earlies if you wish but plant main crop as norm.
You still have over a month to go before planting spuds.

[plum crumble]

Hi there! Good advice not to try and do it all at once - you will get despondent.

You certainly can do the spuds through the membrane - I did it the first year on my allotment because of the same reasons as you, and very successfully.  A few points to remember though - firstly make sure that the membrane is porous for air and water to get through. Lay it - cut crosses where you want to plant - dig out there, put a wedge of manure there, put your chitted spud in the manure, soil back on top, then close the material back over the top - this means you DON't get green spuds, as the material acts in the same way as earthing up - ie, blocks the light. It also suppresses weeds and retains moisture. IF you are happy to use slug pellets, I would put a few in too, as a warm membrane is a lovely home for them - but nowhere near as bad as plastic, which DO NOT use!!

I had a great few crops using this method, so go for it!!!Good luck :happy:

[zazen999]

Save the cost of the weed fabric, and do it through cardboard or newspapers instead. Cover the soil overlapping the card/paper as thick as you can. Wet it through with a watering can and the next day, use a bulb planter to make a hole and pop the seed potato in and cover it up with the soil in the planter. If you use a variety such as Kestrel which are more slug resistant, then you can pretty much leave them be for a few months, just lifting up the card and taking initially small and then large potatoes with very little digging involved.

[plum crumble]

Hi Z99 - how do you stop the card/paper blowing away once it has dried out from the initial soaking? Once the caulms are up, they'll hold it, but what about before that? I'm intrigued

[zazen999]

I popped some bricks on some, some soil on others, you can put milk containers filled with water on them.....anything to hand!

[bigben]

Thanks for the suggestions I will definitely give it a go. I have ordered rather too many spuds anyway so I can risk it and hopefully make a bit of progress on clearance in the process.

[chriscross1966]

I did it thru mulch this year, bricks to hold down... punched a hole in the plastic, took a spir of earth out and deweeded it, stuck some manure in the bottom of the hole, put the spud on it and put th e earth on top, cleared the soil great, it's totalled the weeds that were there... a few bindweed made it through but that was about it and they gfot picked up when I harvested.....

chrisc

[compostqueen]

I've done it very successfully but I placed loads of cardboard down over the weeds first then thick depth of muck.  I was lucky enough to be given a length of heavy duty sheet mulch with holes already in it (from a strawb grower). I'd hate to use a sheet of this and make holes in it as it's so expensive.  It does work though.  I got mice under my Kerrs Pink though and they were a right off.  The Desirees and Arran Pilots were absolutely fine