[Urbanite]

As per topic title, who do`s it and how do you handle the earthing up?.I`ve just put in 12x4 ft raised beds(scaffold boards),today I dug three trenchie`s, the two outside 10 inchies in, the middle trench in the centre of the bed. The idea is to trowel the seed potatos into the trench quite deep and instead of drawing the soil back over and then earthing up leave the ridges in place and as the haulm grows, gradually draw earth back over from the top of the ridge`s.Anyone tried this?, was it successful?,should i just plant and mulch?

[Plotmaster]

I tried the traditional way first year, to many weeds and mucking about, now I put down weed membrane with holes melted in it so it does not fray and use a post auger to bore the hole about 6" deep - fill with a layer of compost put in the spud them more compost to the top.

All the foliage heads for the holes in the weed membrane and the weed membrane stops the spuds going green

[Trikidiki]

I only do two trenches in a 4ft bed. Three seems to be too close to handle properly. I might try Plotmasters method though.

[sunshineband]

I have tried this style and yes, it does work quite well.

I now do my rows crosswise in the beds as it seems to make it easier to earth up. I struggled a bit with the centre one, personally

[AnneB]

Like Trikidiki I now only do 2 rows in a 4 ft bed.  As Sunshine mentions,  managing the middle trench is quite difficult.   I started off doing two rows per bed, then temptation got the better of me the year before last at potato day and I thought I would squeeze another row in the middle. It was difficult to get too, but worse than that,  I think the closeness of the foliage encouraged disease.  I had one row of first earlies and 2 rows of second earlies. Even in a blight year earlies usually escape, but it went through this bed like wildfire, the maincrop bed with two rows on the next plot was untouched.  I reverted to two rows last year and will stick to it.

[Robster]

Me too.  4 foot raised bed with two rows of potatoes.  My plot neighbour puts a handful of chicken manure pellets under his potatoes.  I'm trying that this year as well.

[mumofstig]

I now do mine in short rows across the bed, like Sunny. They seem easier to earth up 

[surbie100]

I do short rows across too - 3-4 spuds per row in a 4ft bed. After double digging and regular hand weeding I have very few weed issues. And nearly none once the foliage is up.

[Trikidiki]

From Surbie's picture I see that she has earthed up the potatoes at planting time. One of my allotment neighbours does this too but my view is this is not necessary and may be counterproductive.

My understanding is that as the potato shoot grows it reaches the surface and is triggered to create tubers at that height, by earthing up you create another surface for it to grow towards and then trigger the production of more tubers. By earthing up at planting time you do not get this secondary or tertiary surface for more tuber production.

I dig a shallow trench then dig another trowel blade depth below that and place the tuber, when shoots show in the bottom of the trench I rake the soil into the trench so the bed is level, as the shoots break the surface again I earth up creating the ridges then later earth up again until the soil reaches its steepest slope. This gives me at last three occasions when the shoots break the surface and initiate tuber development.

What do others think or do?

[mumofstig]

A lot of people plant and then ridge up straight away, and get a decent yield - so each to their own 

[Trikidiki]

Sorry if my post sounded like a criticism, I was trying to word it such that it wouldn't be taken that way.

Just interested in people's views on alternatives. Maybe there is an advantage to one over the other for mains or earlies? One may produce more but smaller spuds where the other produces larger but fewer?  A bit like the planting of earlies or mains first debate.

[surbie100]

I get pretty good yields Triki. My plot's on heavy clay, on a slope and is waterlogged till late April. To plant earlier in April and help them to not rot I plant spuds shallowly and do a first earthing up. I do a second after that when they break through. Don't bother with a third - I harvest enough spuds for both of us + friends from 2 bags of seed spuds.

[Trikidiki]

Sounds ike you might want to plant them on top of the ridge then. 

[surbie100]

Good thought, but if I do that I have watering problems later in the year. This way works for me.

Am also going to try a few seed spuds in pots that I can plant out deeply later and see whether that works well or not.
Doesn't add much to the earthing up discussion, but it's something I've seen on an old Geoff Hamilton clip somewhere for people with boggy land.

[Beekissed]

I've planted mine in the late fall and on the surface of the soil, then covered them with composting wood chips, grass clippings, mulched leaves, more wood chips, more grass, more leaves, then topped it with whole leaves of all kinds.  The total depth of this pile is around 2 ft. deep. 

Those potatoes are coming up through that mound right now, nice strong shoots, nice web of roots around each spud.  This is the first time I've tried this method, so only time will tell how it crops out, but for now those spuds are healthy and growing well, up early and have plenty of room in the mound to put out tubers.