Potato fertiliser

I like to grow the veggies as organically as I can and in the past I've relied on blood, fish and bone as fertiliser. This year is the first time I'm having a proper go at potatoes and I'm doing some rows in a bed and some in a variety of containers (trying a few different sorts to see what works best). I did put manure on the spud bed late last autumn but I know spuds are heavy feeders and I'm keen to get the best crop I can. I was planning on using BFB a week before planting in the bed, with a repeat application once a month. In the pots I was planning on using just general purpose compost or grobag contents, maybe mixed in with some diggings from the ridiculous number of mole hills that have sprung up all over the garden, also with BFB during planting and once a month.

So - is BFB enough for the bed or will I get a noticably better crop if I use a specialised spud fertiliser or chicken manure pellets or something like that? Is last autumn's manure enough or should I put down more manure before/during planting? And does the compost/BFB plan sound about right for the containers, or do they need more than this?

Any advice would be much appreciated. The garden soil, by the way, is a bit on the heavy side because we're on clay.

I'm a bit like you shokkyy, I grow tatties the traditional way by bunging loads of muck on the plot  in winter but I'm experimenting with growing some in containers on the soil and with the addition of a specialized potato fertilizer in order to compare crop size. Tattieman claims excellent results with this method but I'm one of those awkward beggars who needs to find out for himself.

It will work and you will be amazed that a bag so small can produce so much.
I didn't believe it at first but once you see the sides of the bags swelling out with 8oz potatoes you soon realise that you should have tried it sooner.

Hold on, I'm confused - are you saying the potato fertiliser caused the good results or the fact that you're using a bag? And are you talking about the polypot bags that sit on top of the soil, or are you talking about planter bags that sit anywhere?

Shokkyy I think it is a combination of a balanced fertilizer and the small polypots that make the difference. I had good results in the soil with the same fertilizer but the skin finish was much better. Too much manure or fertilizer can make the potatoes taste different than if they are left to grow on a bit more naturally.

OK. But do you think a specialised potato fertiliser gives a notably better result than BFB or chicken pellets?

Quote from: Iain@JBA on February 02, 2010, 07:57

Shokkyy I think it is a combination of a balanced fertilizer and the small polypots that make the difference. I had good results in the soil with the same fertilizer but the skin finish was much better. Too much manure or fertilizer can make the potatoes taste different than if they are left to grow on a bit more naturally.

OK. But do you think a specialised potato fertiliser gives a notably better result than BFB or chicken pellets?

Yes a balanced potato fertilizer would be the best way to produce large crops of spuds.
The ratio as Ivor states is very important. Just using potato fertilizer would be better than spending money on all the other products you have mentioned.

Yes a balanced potato fertilizer would be the best way to produce large crops of spuds.
The ratio as Ivor states is very important. Just using potato fertilizer would be better than spending money on all the other products you have mentioned.

Thanks, DD. And would you only apply that fertilizer on planting, or would you reapply periodically during growth, for both bed grown and container grown?