[potatogrower]

mix soil with groworganic fertilizer. pile up a mound of soft worked soil and plant potato 2 inches down into the mound and leave it until it grows above the surface with no watering. cover up more if weather is cold in case of froze bite. let it to grow more and water the deep trenches and the roots will work their way down. when the potato's foliage have grown tall then water in spray action over the potato foliage so water runs off the leaves as gentle droplets to make the soil at the top moist. good sized spud is down to very soft fertile soil, well that's what i think from my experience.

PG

[daviddale]

hello all, if you're talking about the perfect potato, why can we no longer find the ones we so enjoyed eating years ago? I only grow earlies and i can remember the lovely waxey ones we had in the 60's and 70's, mum would run some bacon fat hot from the frying pan all over them, my mouth is watering just thinking about it!
what's your favourite type of potato? regards, David.

[Aunt Sally]

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.

That works well on a small scale like you are doing Zippy (80 squ ft) but my potato plot is 600 squ ft an I could never make enough compost to cover that.  

[Spana]

Last year i did a very small trial with the no earthing up/building up grass clippings method .  It worked so well that I've done the whole lot  this way this year.  Difference is tho, last year was a very wet season down here and rain soaked through the thick bed of clippings.  This years its been very dry and the soil under the clippings is dust dry.  I'm digging my first lot tomorrow so will be interested to see whats happened.

The trench method has always puzzled me.  Ive watched other people dig a trench piling the soil on the side of it, then plant their seed spuds in the piled up soil.  Surely that just makes for green potatoes.  I've always planted in the bottom of the trench and pulled the piled up soil back over as the shoots grow.

But i suppose if you have a method that works what ever it is , stick with it

[JaK]

I don't know if my potatoes are perfect but the family all like 'em. I have to use bags to grow them and use compost from the garden. That is all.

[Spana]

Was going to dig my first root tomorrow but had to see if i had any sort of crop .  This is from one plant.

Variety Premiere , planted 18thApril, earthed up with grass clippings only, not watered.

Weight 2lb.12oz with the mud thats on them, its pouring down here 

Cant see any slug or scab damage at the moment.

I've got no one to compare with but going on other years and taking into account the dry weather I'm pretty pleased with the result.

[Y.E.A.H]

Some very interesting techniques here. I very much like the grass clipping idea, i'll definitely try that method next year 

Was going to dig my first root tomorrow but had to see if i had any sort of crop .  This is from one plant.

Variety Premiere , planted 18thApril, earthed up with grass clippings only, not watered.

Weight 2lb.12oz with the mud thats on them, its pouring down here 

Cant see any slug or scab damage at the moment.

I've got no one to compare with but going on other years and taking into account the dry weather I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Wow Spana, Those are cracking potatoes! well done 

[potatogrower]

I guess for some ambition is determined by plot size and for others ambition is growing the best and exotic food you can find. i mean i never thought that melons can grow in the UK climate and reading here i read it can be done. nice little mission for me  

Ah yes...sorry Aunty Sally  back to "How to grow thee perfect spud"  :happy:

i 1st grew potato's in clay soil 2 years ago and i did not get good results so i prefer soft soil, maybe i didn't have the knack of it back then but now the soil is soft i guess the growing spuds can easily displace the soil without stemming the spud's growth and got really good results.

this is a good way to share ideas. pic n' mix  

[azubah]

I just dig a trench and plant my spuds in March when the weather is nice enough to get up to the lottie. I ignore them for the next 2-3 months until the urge for a furtle gets too strong. We were eating last years crop until April so it worked for me.

[DD.]

Sounds rather like my technique!

[Aunt Sally]

We (Worzel) don't dig a trench.  "We" just make a hole with a trowel for each potato.

[Yorkie]

I've done both of the previous methods, depending on how energetic I feel on the day of planting.  An entirely scientific approach, I think you'll agree 

[azubah]

We (Worzel) don't dig a trench.  "We" just make a hole with a trowel for each potato.

Our soil is a little heavy and I find too much hole digging with a trowel too hard on the wrists. ..and all that crouching does not suit me either. A spade seems like less work for me.

[mumofstig]

I've got sandy soil, so need to plant deep for moisture...so dig a trench make a planting hole in the bottom of trench add compost/fertiliser there as well and then cover over a little. Continue to pull soil into the trench as the spuds grow untill eventuallythe soil is level again. As you can see this method gives you plenty of soil for earthing up as well

[Aunt Sally]

We (Worzel) don't dig a trench.  "We" just make a hole with a trowel for each potato.

Our soil is a little heavy and I find too much hole digging with a trowel too hard on the wrists. ..and all that crouching does not suit me either. A spade seems like less work for me.

I don't find it hard on "my" wrists and I've bought a nice soft kneeler for Worzel.