[acwid]

hello peeps me again anyone grown spuds under plastic with any degree of success just a thought 

[mumofstig]

do you mean black plastic at ground level, or under a cloche or polytunnel 

[acwid]

sorry my mistake I should of made it more clear it is black plastic 

[paintedlady]

I've grown spuds under black plastic (the thin stuff perforated with tiny holes)  Interesting the first time I did it - I used a dibber to pierce the plastic and make a hole, popped spud in and then thought ... oh, what do I back fill with?  :blink:  So I also got a bag of compost to fill holes in and the rest to spread over the plastic sheeting (acted both as a weight on the sheet, but more important, the compost absorbed water allowing it to percolate through the little holes)  After cropping, the compost was dug into the soil ready for the next lot of planting out.

Compared to earthing up, not a lot of difference in yield except the crop was nearer the surface so easier to dig out.  Downside was having to tear the sheet when harvesting say, first earlies, which I did as and when I wanted fresh.  Slug problem seemed a bit of a problem, but having said that, the earthed up spuds were probably just as bad.

[acwid]

I think I will cover all my bases will plant some spuds under black plastic and the others will plant as normal and see what happens thank you all 

[GrannieAnnie]

Like painted lady, I used the proper terram which does have tny holes so the rain can still water the potatoes.  If its black plastic, you'd have to think about the watering aspect.

How I did it, was to cut a cross, then dug out a little hole to put the potato in, the the cross was closed up again.  I didn't cover the crosss so had a few potatoes that were green where the wind kept blowing the cross open a bit.

slugs were a bit moe of a problem because of the spuds being on the surface, but again, so much easier to collect.  I just rolled the terram back a row at a time, or part of a row, then just covered the rest up again, anchoring with a couple of bricks or pegged it back in.

Like you said, try both ways and see which you prefer!