What Compost/Fertilizer?

[tattieman]

Just a few questions for you all.
1: What type of compost are you using for growing your potatoes in grower bags/containers and why?
2: Are you adding fertilizer and if so what NPK?

I am just wondering if we can compare results on here as to what crop yield you get from just the 2 above factors and maybe it would help improve everyones harvest on here.

[terrier]

'Oss muck and soil mixed, same as in the ground. Growing in buckets, I start by putting the seed on to a 2" layer of soil and then covering it with more soil. As the haulm grows I add more soil until the buckets full. At every layer I throw in a sprinkling of chicken pellets. Seems to work OK for me.

[FionaH]

Well I didnt feed and got a tiny amount of potatoes http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...est_25491.html

In fact I was told never to feed potatoes at all, think thats a bit of advice I will drop

[tattieman]

'Oss muck and soil mixed, same as in the ground. Growing in buckets, I start by putting the seed on to a 2" layer of soil and then covering it with more soil. As the haulm grows I add more soil until the buckets full. At every layer I throw in a sprinkling of chicken pellets. Seems to work OK for me.

Sounds a good way of doing it to me.

Well I didnt feed and got a tiny amount of potatoes http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...est_25491.html

In fact I was told never to feed potatoes at all, think thats a bit of advice I will drop

Oh dear Fiona I think someone has been telling you porkies about not feeding potatoes. It is one thing you must do.

[Snadger]

I must confess to being a little bit unsure about feeding tatties and usually resort to a general blood fish and bone meal feed......

I know I don't want massive haulms at the expense of tatties so I stay clear of Nitro.
Pottasium is best not fed until flowering time I believe.
Are tubers roots though and if so should they be given phosphates to encourage more root? I tend to think not and feel that a high potassium feed as well as asissting flowers and setting of fruits, may contribute to the ripening proccess of tubers as well.

In a nutshell mine get BFB mixed in with the compost (or in the planting hole in veg patch) and I start watering with Comfey tea as a foliar feed once they start to produce flowers. If they don't produce flowers they just get the comfey when tuthers are flowering!
The soil in the veg patch and the John Innes type compost in pots will both also have added muck (cow muck, horse muck, home produced compost or this year even chicken muck!)

If you weren't growing organically I suppose Growmore ( 7-7-7) could be a suitable alternative..........if not a bit high on the Nitro side or something like a 4-8-12 would possibly be better?

[SarzWix]

Potatoes in Beds
I've only grown them in beds twice, but what I've done is cover the bed with cardboard, then manure, then weed cover & left over winter. Then in spring, dug in whatever the worms haven't done for me, planted the potatoes in a trench & gradually earthed up.

Potatoes in Containers

My growing medium in containers is usually a mix of multi-purpose compost and topsoil - soil on it's own is quite heavy but the compost dries out too easily, I like the combination of both. If I've got a bit of well rotted muck/compost that goes in the initial mix too, pop the seed in, cover, then keep topping up.

I feed the container potatoes weekly once flowering, and the ground ones once or twice, with a liquid fertiliser called Power Feed from Harrod Horticultural (it's described as "liquid compost with fish", and it bloomin hums ). One bottle last me a whole season usually, and I love it!

[kitchengardner]

Just a few questions for you all.
1: What type of compost are you using for growing your potatoes in grower bags/containers and why?
2: Are you adding fertilizer and if so what NPK?

I am just wondering if we can compare results on here as to what crop yield you get from just the 2 above factors and maybe it would help improve everyones harvest on here.

I use a mixture of New Horizons Organic Vegetable Compost and top soil (50:50 mix) with a cupful of Blood, bone & fish meal stirred in. Initially I feed with liquid seaweed once a week to help the leaves establish and then switch to comfrey tea. This usually yields me ~50% extra compared to ones grown in the same soil/compost without the liquid feeds

Hope this helps

Kitchen Gardener

[Wren]

I mix a sprinkle of Fish, Blood and Bone into each layer as i build up the compost as the haulms grow through. I had good harvest of the Pentland Javlin from 10ltr buckets. I used B&Q multi purpose compost and there was little problem with it drying out once the foliage covered the bucket tops. I will prob do the same again this year but if you have some good idea's of how to get a bigger organically grown crop of container grown potato's without it costing an arm and a leg more, then please share.

Wren.

[tattieman]

Plenty of great ideas already for people to use and compare.
We use seaweed liquid spray on ours and 14-14-21NPK.

[tattieman]

Has anyone used this product before? potato grow bag I have just found out that Humax is 10mins down the road from me and this looks ideal for potatoes.