[Big Stev3]

Morning All,

Just a quick question regarding my potatos.
I'm planning to plant them out this weekend, they are Desiree, main crop. I've seen various people on the allotment plant potatos then immediately draw the soil up. I was planning on digging a hole, placing the potato in and covering, so the soil is flat and then draw the soil has the plant grows through.

Kind Regards
Steve

[Growster...]

Nothing wrong with that Stev.

I usually draw up most of the soil, just in case there's a frost, and one or two are popping through before I get a chance to cover them.

The chap next to me does it your way!

[DD.]

I do it Steve's way and I know the revered Kleftiwallah does, for the same reason.

The leaves are the plant's food factory and the sooner they can get out into the sunlight, the sooner they can start this process. If they've got a big mound of soil on top of them, it's going to be longer before they can start doing so.

You've just got to keep an eye on the weather forecast and if frost is likely, be prepared to hill up or fleece at short notice.

[Salmo]

I am a level ground man. The only difference is that I draw out a furrow to which I add manure or compost, mix it into the furrow bottom and place the potatoes along the furrow before covering.

Potatoes planted shallow get the warmth of the sun. Probably the delay in emergance when mounded up is due to the seed remaining cold rather than having to come further through the soil. In the dark the chits will elongate fast and quickly reach the surface.

The other advantage of starting with level ground is that as you earth up you kill emerging weeds.

[digalotty]

i dig a hole and mound the soil round the top i then losen up the botom of the hole and plant my spud ,  this gives me a deep burried spud with the soil placed round the top,     i then take fresh compost and fill as it grows , when at ground level i then use the soil at the top to mound up the plant as it grows .
as i use the fresh compost to fill the hole i believe i am giving the plant rich fresh soil and nutrients to grow in.    i dont cover more than a couple of inches at a time so the plant can reach for the light

[Kleftiwallah]

Big Steve 3.   This is exactly the method me and the memsahib did when we first took over an old allotment with heavy soil.    Carry on.     Cheers,     Tony.

[stu007]

Hi Steve, one year i tried mounding up as i planted but found the shoots wanted the shortest distance to the sunshine so they emerged through either side of the mounds. This caused a problem in that the rows were no longer straight so from now on i am a level ground man putting manure at the bottom of the trenches with a light covering of soil as i plant.
Hope this helps.
Stu.

[DD.]

That's the way I do it to a tee!

[emptydraw]

I dig a trench a spade wide and half a spade deep (4 rows about 12 ft long in my case), break up the bottom and add potato fertiliser. I put the spud in the trench, back fill until level.

When a couple of inches of greenery is visible I cover with soil and keep doing this until I have a serious of roughly equal sized triangles (trough, peak trough peak etc). Then I fill all of the troughs between the spuds, with barrow loads of manure, making the whole thing flat but much higher than it used to be.

The manure mulches the soil, retaining moisture and keeping weeds down, some goodness has got to reach the spuds and when I've dug out the spuds (and dug in the manure), the soil is in great condition ready for the next set of crops.

[sunshineband]

Hi Steve, one year i tried mounding up as i planted but found the shoots wanted the shortest distance to the sunshine so they emerged through either side of the mounds. This caused a problem in that the rows were no longer straight so from now on i am a level ground man putting manure at the bottom of the trenches with a light covering of soil as i plant.
Hope this helps.
Stu.

That's why I start off with flat ground as it makes for easier hilling up for me   

[Growster...]

Worth remembering that commercial growers don't really want to spend too much time re-drawing soil up once they're sown, so they build the mound as they plant.

We do roughly the same, but not drawing all the soil up, so I suppose that's a compromise...

Also, when drawing the soil up, you can 'adjust' the shoots which are poking out the sides, and eventually, they nearly all finish up at the top.

And as for the warmth discussion, it is true that they'll get a lot from being in flattish soil, but a mound - if sown north-south, will also benefit from the increased area of soil in the mound at this time of year...

[Big Stev3]

Thanks for all the advice.

I think I will leave the soil flat and draw up when the plant grows through.

[chriscross1966]

Usefully my rotavator has a ridger so I put the ridges in then plant through them.... then once they're up plate the whole thing in cardboard to act as a weed supressant and cover the whole lot in manure (I've got a mate with a horse livery)... last year I did that to previously unbroken ground having rotavated it a couple of times and thrown some manure on it... had a good copr of spuds all things considered, there are very few weeds growing on it this spring and it's dead easy to dig..... plus the soil looks great in terms of worm count etc.....

[A Reyt Tayty]

Is it not a bit early to plant maincrop going by the book?
Personally, I would have thought the earlier the better to avoid blight.

[DD.]

My book says late March, early April. They need a longer growing season than earlies.

If blight's around lates won't avoid it due to this longer growing period, you do stand a chance with earlies though.