Rats, potatoes in buckets and chicken pellets

[womble]

Chickens are fed on a diet high in calcium and lime to produce good egg shells, so their poo is alkaline.

I think lime can also be used in the manufacture of the pellets as well.

So by adding chicken pellets you are also turning the soil alkaline.

Potatoes like the opposite soil balance, ie acidic.

They will still grow Ok providing you don't add loads of pellets but you will find the tubers more likely to have scab - still edible but far from a perfect spud !!


Since I don't use chicken pellets I'm not too sure of their NPK value but I think they could be too biased towards nitrogen for the best spuds.

Edit: Just checked and yes, chicken pellets are biased towards nitrogen whereas a potato feed should be biased towards potash.

I did say I would say what the results of the potatoes in buckets was when dosed with chicken manure pellets.
They were fine, better than fine, not one blemish on the skins.
Considering they were left over potatoes from the shops and small flower buckets, I got quite a good crop.

[Storming Norman]

My potatoes in pots were attacked earlier this year.

Big jagged holes dug into the side of the pots and claw marks across the rest.

I assumed it was the foxes that lurk in the neighbours wilderness.

Don't think they ate many but it rather checked them.

Having said that I found a large and very dead rat this spring in the veg bed - foxes again?