How are you planting your tatties........

[rob39]

Arran Pilot & Desiree are my choice for this year. Planting some in the garden in trenches 1 spade depth, cover over with the soil taken out, and earth up as normal as they grow and some in planters (x3 per bag) plant on 6" compost then cover to an 1" depth, when shoots are 2-3" above the compost recover with compost 1" and so on, to see which method gets the best result. Been using the planter method past 2 years but not impressed with the results.

[Martin H]

Nice experiment, Rob. I've always used your first method so I'll be very interested to see the outcome.

[Farmer_Gyles]

normally at this time of year i would have dug over most of the veggie patch, but this year the weather hasn't been good so i haven't done it

i usually plant some spuds in the ground and some in sacks - i'm doing the same this year - except this year i've just popped holes in the un-dug soil and dropped the spuds in

this weekend i planted 18 international kidney, 25 king edward and 6 other earlies (random) in the ground, 10 king edward and 8 other earlies (random) in sacks

fingers crossed the weather improved and i get a reasonable crop ....

[Two_Sheds]

Mine went in y'day.

My soil is alkaline, and spuds get scabby. Not nice.

Now what I do is dig out a trench or a hole with the spade. Remove the soil, put it on the bean or brassica bed.
Replace soil with 2yo leafmould (lovely black & crumbly).

A little bit of hard work, but the spuds come out perfectly clean & scab-free

[binley100]

My first and second earlies are in just the mains to go. Planted through cardboard, llama poop and leaves using a bulb planter.......fingers crossed the haulms follow the line of least resistance..

[mrgrower]

I've got 6 trenches ready for my tatties am not sure whether to plant all at once or stagger one lot this week and then another lot in two weeks???

I've also only got Maris Piper and debating on if to get another variety to go in if I go with the two week idea? Thinking King Eddys if I can get hold of some..

I could really do with buying a draw hoe

[wadsleyparkowl]

This will be my first year growing in the ground. I've only ever grown my spuds at home in tubs. I'm unsure how deep to dig. It was easy in the tubs as you could simply keep adding compost, but in the ground there is only so much earthing up you can do. If they are planted deeper does that mean less earthing up or is that a myth.?

[Hazel at the Hill]

If they are planted deeper does that mean less earthing up or is that a myth.?

I stick mine in quite deep (8-10") so that by the time they've reached the surface, hopefully the last frost date has passed. I generally do a token earth up when the plants are about a foot high - the purpose of which is - if I'm honest - so that they look like everyone else's spuds do in nice ridges.

I didn't have chance on the main crops last year, and maybe lost half a dozen 'green' spuds if that. I guess that I may have had a greater crop if I had earthed up more diligently. Who knows.

What is sure is that I would have had a greater crop if it hadn't been such a cold and wet summer, but there ya go.

[Olorin2001]

I use black plastic buckets with a dozen 20mm holes drilled in the bottom with a step drill. Double handfull of leaf mould into the bottom, seed potato placed on top and two double handfulls of leaf mould on top, plus the fertiliser of your choice, add more leaf mould during growing season, simulating earthing up. I mulch with wood chip, weed fabric laid down, buckets on top and woodchip to the depth of the buckets, keeps everything nice and moist, blackbirds take care of slugs etc. I harvest as and when needed all through the winter, no digging, no leaving spuds in the ground, just grab a bucket and unpack in the comfort of the greenhouse, harvest in any weather. Still have a few buckets left now, survived the winter flooding very well as they are above ground level, minimal slug damage over the winter and any shoots growing now you can break off and pot up as cuttings. My prefered variety is Arran Victory, old, not the highest of yeilds but best for roasting and mash. Buckets cost a pound each and last for years, I removed the handles so if you can think of a use for 100 wire bucket handles let me know. Using this method you can start early under cover. Ok so I have the advantage of an unlimited supply of leaf mould and over time the wood chip rots down to fine crumbs and is sieved and used with leaf mould but you could use coir or something similar.

[VirginVegGrower]

I've got 6 trenches ready for my tatties am not sure whether to plant all at once or stagger one lot this week and then another lot in two weeks???

I've also only got Maris Piper and debating on if to get another variety to go in if I go with the two week idea? Thinking King Eddys if I can get hold of some..

I could really do with buying a draw hoe

King Teds in the pound shops or were...

[mrgrower]

King Teds in the pound shops or were...

Dunno you got any ideas? planted Maris Piper this morning then watered only for it to start raining

[wadsleyparkowl]

Well, I've got them in. I've done two rows. Based on advice I've cut holes through plastic sheeting which was laid down at the end of the year, put the spuds in which was quite difficult having to pull the earth back through the holes.

I've done two further rows by digging a trench & laying them in & covering them up.

Will be interesting to see which method works. Hopefully both, but knowing my luck it could go belly up

[binley100]

^^^^try using a bulb planter

[redser]

But get a good one. I picked one up in tesc*s, it bent in half after a few holes. The old trowel had a smug grin when I took it out of the boot.

[binley100]

This is one of my tattie beds.........wondering if the cardboard will still be there in the morning or whether it'll be on the Rugby to Cov railway line...you can hear it now ....Bing bong..Trains between Coventry and rugby cancelled due to cardboard on line