Rats, potatoes in buckets and chicken pellets

[womble]

I got back very late last night and checked on the garden, when I got close to 4 buckets of potatoes I disturbed what I thought was a rat, didn't think much of it as we have them here now and again.
But this morning I saw that something had been digging in a bucket, right where I saw the animal, a hole about 4 inches down, I did put a few chicken pellets in the buckets about a week ago, that might have been attracting them, or were they digging for the tubers?
Never had this before with potatoes in pots.

I'm going to move the pots somewhere else, but has anyone come across this before?

[peanut]

I had a rat digging up my Spring bulbs in containers, guess they'll eat potatoes too!

[Sue]

Hi
Early in the Spring I had real trouble with digging in my raised beds and one of the "old wise men" said it was because I was using blood, fish and bone.
Still using it but the digging has stopped. My potatoes were dug up the first time they were planted - but not eaten, but after replanting and covering with fleece they stayed in the ground. So might be the chicken pellets?
Sue

[Peter]

Why did you put chicken pellets in?

[womble]

Why did you put chicken pellets in?

Well, because I thought the plants might need a boost, they haven't had any fertiliser at all, I was thinking along the lines of long distance feeding and this should feed them for a few weeks.
Do you think it was the wrong thing to do then? I thought it was a pretty good thing to do, they don't get any liquid feed, so this seemed a good ongoing compromise.

[Snadger]

I grew Pink Fir Apple spuds last year. My allotment neighbour said he'd never been able to grow them as the rats had always dug em up.............so rats DO eat spuds!

[Madame Mucksprout]

Im interested in hearing if the chicken pellets are a good idea (sounds like it to me :-)).?????
My potatoes are in containers and although have had new compost to earth up would probably be glad of a boost.

[teakdesk]

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.

[Snadger]

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.

So what you are saying is that you'll get lush tops, very few small tubers and they'll be covered in scab?

[Iamhanuman]

steer clear of chicken poo with tatties then
and avoid rats at the same time!!!
whoo hoo double whammy!

[Peter]

Well, because I thought the plants might need a boost, they haven't had any fertiliser at all, I was thinking along the lines of long distance feeding and this should feed them for a few weeks.
Do you think it was the wrong thing to do then? I thought it was a pretty good thing to do, they don't get any liquid feed, so this seemed a good ongoing compromise.

OK, lets check we are on the same page here.

"Chicken Pellets" = food for chickens.

"Pelletised Chicken Manure" or "Chicken Manure Pellets" = food for plants.

The first will bring rats by the score and was what I assumed you meant hence my original question.

[Iamhanuman]

ahhh can see the confusion there

[womble]

Well......... no, even I'm not stupid enough to feed chicken feed to the potatoes, the chickens eat those and the plants get the pelleted chicken manure. Although they do look very similar, thankfully I keep them in different buildings, otherwise I might get mixed up.

When anyone writes "chicken pellets" on the vegetable forums, I assume that they mean pelleted manure, not chicken food, neither chickens that have been diced up and squeezed into pellet form.

[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 think you are probably right, it was only a few and I'll let you know at the end what the potatoes were like.

[Uncle Albert]

Right, I've just chopped up my first chicken (she wasn't best pleased). How do I pelletise her?