[Y.E.A.H]

Just wondering what other people's techniques are for growing their perfect potato?!  

My technique:
When frosts are meant to stop dig a large trench and fill with well rotted horse manure and cover with a slight bit of soil. Plant the potatoes about 1 ft apart, cover and make a small mound and water twice a week (unless it rains or is REALLY cold), when they come up water more regually and earth up. In warm weather (summer) water daily. When the plant start to flower remove them. This helps the plant put its energy into the tubers and not the fruit....

This has always worked wonders for me, i had two small rows and from two plants got a whole salad dish full of potatoes the size of my hand, no disease, no marks, and they tasted great!  

Y.E.A.H

[Aunt Sally]

Goodness me that's a lot of watering 

It takes about 50 x 10L cans of water to water my potatoes.  I don't think I want to do that too frequently.   

[grumpyoldb]

I've never watered potato's. You only need to go about two inches below the surface and you will find moisture. Water attracts slugs.

[DD.]

Dig a trench, chuck them with some horse muck & cover.

Water if dry. Earth up every now & then.

Not worth the effort of taking the flowers off, they take proportionally so little of the energy, it's not worth my energy, especially with nearly 300 plants.

Disappointed if in the early days I have to dig more than one tuber for a meal.

[mumofstig]

I've never watered potato's. You only need to go about two inches below the surface and you will find moisture. Water attracts slugs.

It may always be like that in Manchester, but it got dry for over a spade's depth here in the SE so we had to water just to keep things alive 

[DD.]

Agreed.

This forum covers the whole of the UK (and beyond). There is a vast range of different climates and soil types, so you cannot make generalisations like that.

[RichardA]

agree about generalisations -- "perfect" for some people might include high disease resistance for their locality, drought resistant and good storage capability. Making a good virus free seed for next year might also come into it. Show bench perfect might not be same as kitchen perfect especialy if kitchen requirements include chippers, bakers, boilers and salad potatoes etc.
I have been taking earlies for about 4 weeks now and never dug more than one root for a meal.
R

[JayG]

As apparently the only grower in the country who has potato eelworm (PCN) in his garden ( ) I agree that sometimes the main objective is to get a crop before they succumb to something nasty!

Don't have room for anything other than earlies so it's a matter of choosing a good but eelworm-resistant variety (Lady Christl and Pentland Javelin) and planting a bit late to try and get them to "hit the ground running" so I can harvest them before too much damage is done.

Perfect? No, but you always have to work with what you've got.  

[grumpyoldb]

I've never watered potato's. You only need to go about two inches below the surface and you will find moisture. Water attracts slugs.

It may always be like that in Manchester, but it got dry for over a spade's depth here in the SE so we had to water just to keep things alive 

That was what I said. "I've never watered." I didn't say that others shouldn't.
I wasn't generalising, and the original poster did ask, "Just wondering what other people's techniques are for growing their perfect potato?" 

[arugula]

That was what I said. "I've never watered." I didn't say that others shouldn't.
I wasn't generalising, and the original poster did ask, "Just wondering what other people's techniques are for growing their perfect potato?" 

No but you did say

You only need to go about two inches below the surface and you will find moisture.

Mumofstig was pointing out that this is not the case in parts of the country or even in other countries where we have forum members.

[grumpyoldb]

I answered the question. Simple.
I shan't bother posting on these forums again if that is what the attitude is.

[Aunt Sally]

Oh.. don't be grumpy oldb   

[Rampant_Weasel]

im still trying to grow the perfect potato  

mine always get scab so i dont think i ever will but i love eating them !

[Y.E.A.H]

Thanks for all your replies everyone! This seems to have got a bit of a heated topic  

Oh.. don't be grumpy oldb  

 


Couldn't have thought of a better reply myself!  

[Zippy]

Two years running now I have not planted my seed potatoes in the soil. I am building up the organic content of my beds and I don't dig so for the potato beds I wheelbarrow a two foot high bank of homemade compost, lawn mowings and guineapig/rabbit hutch poo and bedding onto the entire bed (20 x 4 feet) and place the seed potatoes just at teh bottom of the compost layer but not in the soil at all.

The plant then roots into the soil but the new potatoes grow in the compost layer and all so far have come up clean and sound.  I will use this method all the time but once my beds have all been composted in this way will most likely need less compost each time.

To keep the new potatoes from the light, you can keep covering the bed with lawn mowings to stop the spuds going green if they are near the top.

Never watered as they are growing in deep mulch.  Climate here is warm and humid most days so I don't water in order to prevent blight. Soil is crumbly and sandy so it eats compost and manure by the barrowload! Water soon drains away so mulching is the answer.