[harry]

What method do you use for planting seed potatoes.

[Rampant_Weasel]

dig a trench, line trench with soot and compost, earth up and start the next trench 

[noshed]

Soot is not compulsory - any fertiliser will do but you can get special spud stuff.
Wait until the first leaves show to begin earthing up. The point is to prevent any of the shallower tubers getting near the light.

[DD.]

I also do not eath up immediately after planting.

I prefer to do it in stages through the season as it helps keep the weeds down.

I also use the trench method with well rotted horse poo.

[lucywil]

I put chicken manure pellets and slug pellets in the trench, I don't earth them up till later too

[Kristen]

Trench
Well rotted manure
Plant seed tubers
Cover

Once leaves through, and when risk of frost, earth-up to cover the leaves

Once fully earthed up, and if still risk of frost, cover with grass clippings (I always get some tubers forming on the surface, so the grass acts, long term, to keep the sunlight off those tubers, and keep moisture in)

Irrigate for the last few weeks before harvest to bulk up the crop.

[Kristen]

Planting bag
4" well rotted manure
6" multi-purpose compost and slow-release Potato fertilizer (Vitax)
Plant tubers into the compost
Earth up with mix of multi-purpose and home made compost as the plant grows allowing it to form some leaf before each earthing up.

Once the bag is full of compost then just Water (I probably should give it a liquid feed too)

[DD.]

I put chicken manure pellets and slug pellets in the trench, I don't earth them up till later too

I forgot to mention the slug food, I also do that.

[mumofstig]

dig a trench, stacking soil either side. Add fertiliser of choice to trench and fork it into the bottom. Make planting holes in bottom of trench for each potato, plant and fill hole.
As potatoes grow through use the earth removed from the trenches to gradually fill up the trench.
It stops me running out of earthing up material and keeps the spuds moister I believe, which is helpful on my sandy soil

[bigben]

Like MOS I also dig the trench then use a bulb planter to sink holes even deeper. You can chuck some manure etc in the bottom of these. As long as they are deep enough you can bury your seed spud and then earth up in stages. As you started with a deep trench you should be able to earth up a bit by just back filling before you need to start heaping. Hopefully avoiding running out of earth for earthing up.

[Rampant_Weasel]

i like to earth up straight away cos im on heavy clay, just makes life easier for me.

[terry200]

Same as DD, but this year i'm going to put slug pellets in too. Last year was my first and my maris piper's had more holes than Rab c's string vest! Do you put the pellets at the same level as the seed spuds or in amongst the earthing up soil?

[aelf]

trench for me too, one spade deep, filled with all the well-rotted muck I can get hold of. spuds are planted on the muck and covered with the soil from the trench. I do 1 trench a week for 8 weeks, starting around the middle of March with my earlies and finishing with my main crop. As the plants grow, I tend to re-earth up just once and then line the gaps between rows with grass clippings. I tend not to water at all.

I like the slug pellet idea   I'll try that this year.[

[mumofstig]

Perhaps we should put in a bulk order for slug pellets..........there are alot of us using them, it seems 

[harry]

I use the organic slug pellets so do you scatter them in the bottom of the trench after planting the spuds