Potato Harvest: Was It Worth It?

[Rocketron]

It has been a poor year for growing large quality crops but potatoes should be easy to grow in most conditions. I think preperation is the key. We apply sulphate of potash 2 months before we plant the potatoes and we work it into the soil. This allows the potash to be more available to the potatoes when they are planted.
The sulphur helps to raise acidity and prevent scab.
We apply the nitrogen and phosphastes at the same level underneath the potatoes and this gives the potatoes plenty of feeding during hard times.
Once the potatoes are through the surface, if they are struggling we apply liquid fertilizer at a rate of 1 litre to 1000litres of water. You can probably use things like maxicrop or similar.
The best way I have found to grow potatoes is in plastic bags in the ground.
You could make up a mix of 50% peat and clean soil to reduce the cost and add 16oz of good fertilizer per 100litres of your mix. I also add 12oz of calcified sea weed to that mix.
The bags are then placed into a shallow trench that has the same fertilizer scatterd on the bottom of the trench before the bags are placed on top.
You can now simply pick a bag when ever you need some and it is so easy.
The field results have been around 17tonnes per acre of seed and in my 17litre plastic bags I enjoyed an average of 4lbs of potatoes per bag which just had one seed potato in.
I would never grow potatoes in the ground again after the results I get in the plastic bags.
I have videos of what I have been doing on youtube.
Now that you know all my secrets you can prepare for next year.
I should also say that I spray for blight every 7-10 days when I get advanced warning from blight watch.

Thank you for a very informative post. I am, however, confused by this. How does the fertiliser in the trench permeate the plastic bags ?

[PAULW]

Very good years crop loads of clean slug/wireworm free spuds, only faliure were the ANYA they were so small I thought I had dug up a nest of baby mice, best spud 2lb 1oz MARIS PIPER

[zazen999]

Thank you for a very informative post. I am, however, confused by this. How does the fertiliser in the trench permeate the plastic bags ?

The bags would have holes in them so that water can drain out and presumably be sucked back in..along with a certain amount of the fertiliser.

Great idea - wonder if it would work on a lottie with no water - if the bags would dry out too much?

[Snadger]

It has been a poor year for growing large quality crops but potatoes should be easy to grow in most conditions. I think preperation is the key. We apply sulphate of potash 2 months before we plant the potatoes and we work it into the soil. This allows the potash to be more available to the potatoes when they are planted.
The sulphur helps to raise acidity and prevent scab.
We apply the nitrogen and phosphastes at the same level underneath the potatoes and this gives the potatoes plenty of feeding during hard times.
Once the potatoes are through the surface, if they are struggling we apply liquid fertilizer at a rate of 1 litre to 1000litres of water. You can probably use things like maxicrop or similar.
The best way I have found to grow potatoes is in plastic bags in the ground.
You could make up a mix of 50% peat and clean soil to reduce the cost and add 16oz of good fertilizer per 100litres of your mix. I also add 12oz of calcified sea weed to that mix.
The bags are then placed into a shallow trench that has the same fertilizer scatterd on the bottom of the trench before the bags are placed on top.
You can now simply pick a bag when ever you need some and it is so easy.
The field results have been around 17tonnes per acre of seed and in my 17litre plastic bags I enjoyed an average of 4lbs of potatoes per bag which just had one seed potato in.
I would never grow potatoes in the ground again after the results I get in the plastic bags.
I have videos of what I have been doing on youtube.
Now that you know all my secrets you can prepare for next year.
I should also say that I spray for blight every 7-10 days when I get advanced warning from blight watch.

Can't for the life of me work out the logic in this. If the ground was beefed up with the same mix you add to the bags, surely you would get an even BETTER crop? Can understand it being easier to pick up the single potatoe shaw for a meal, but what other advantage is there?

[tattieman]

Bluemoon try some in the bags like I suggest and you won't be disapointed.
Rocketron the bags have extra holes in the bottom that I make with a paper punch and this allows the roots to come out of the bag to absorb extra nutrients and moisture from the soil.
Zazen999 the bags can dry out early on if the conditions are very hot but once the haulms have grown they retain moisture better. Because they are in bags you can eaisly water with a watering can once or twice a week if you can get some water.
Snadger the advantages I find are that you do not have to break your back digging trenches and hilling up only to have to then dig them back out again and damage some with your fork or find that slugs have eaten them.
When you want a plate of potatoes you go out and lift the bag or bags that you want to lift and you can leave the potatoes in the bags safely just as if they were in a clamp.
You have no chance of any potatoes being left in the soil so the build up of possible disease from rogues is hugely reduced.
All the bags have names on them and are piled in the corner of my greenhouse nice and safe until I want to eat them.
For me it is the easy solution for myself and a young family. When my wife was pregnant she could just go and lift a bag and take what she wanted. I wouldn't want to send her out with the garden fork to dig them out.
If I put the same fertilizer mix in the soil it would work but skin finish and pest damage would not be as good.
These are just my opinions of my own personal results that suit myself and family.

[Snadger]

Bluemoon try some in the bags like I suggest and you won't be disapointed.
Rocketron the bags have extra holes in the bottom that I make with a paper punch and this allows the roots to come out of the bag to absorb extra nutrients and moisture from the soil.
Zazen999 the bags can dry out early on if the conditions are very hot but once the haulms have grown they retain moisture better. Because they are in bags you can eaisly water with a watering can once or twice a week if you can get some water.
Snadger the advantages I find are that you do not have to break your back digging trenches and hilling up only to have to then dig them back out again and damage some with your fork or find that slugs have eaten them.
When you want a plate of potatoes you go out and lift the bag or bags that you want to lift and you can leave the potatoes in the bags safely just as if they were in a clamp.
You have no chance of any potatoes being left in the soil so the build up of possible disease from rogues is hugely reduced.
All the bags have names on them and are piled in the corner of my greenhouse nice and safe until I want to eat them.
For me it is the easy solution for myself and a young family. When my wife was pregnant she could just go and lift a bag and take what she wanted. I wouldn't want to send her out with the garden fork to dig them out.
If I put the same fertilizer mix in the soil it would work but skin finish and pest damage would not be as good.
These are just my opinions of my own personal results that suit myself and family.

Sounds ideal for my 'pocket' gardening (if not a little unsightly at first) as I could lift them and replant area as soon as tops had died down. Do you use the soil taken from the trench mixed with peat to fill the pots tattieman? Does it work for earlies to give that 'fresh pulled' taste? I suppose the sun playing on the side of the pots will mean they dry out easily until covered by foliage?

[tattieman]

Snadger honestly if you tried it this way you would never go back. I used second hand peat that was going to be dumped and I have show quality potatoes to show for it and no scab. It works for earlies and maincrops. You can start late maturing maincrops off early in your greenhouse and then take them outside when weather is warmer and plant them in your trench. The heat that the black plastic collects during the day makes the soil really warm and your crops grow so much faster.
I have so many potatoes I don't know what to do with them.
If you had really good fertile soil and mixed it with some compost it would be great but it needs to be a fluffy type mix so that it doesn't compact.
Once the roots are out of the bag they can get moisture from the ground. I gave the bottom of the trench a really good forking to break it up.
Once you try this you will not go back to growing spuds in the ground.
Take a look at the videos and look at the growth I get from one little 17litre bag.
I didn't believe it until I tried it.

[Alison]

First year I've grown spuds in the ground in quantity as it's the first year I've had the lottie. To be honest I didn't expect that much but from 3 No 4' by 10' beds I still have some earlies left (not many now though) of delicious Ulster Classic, about half a sack of PFA (not tried yet as so many others), about half a dozen Purple Ryecroft (delicious but poor crop), 3/4 sack of Romano and over 2 sacks of Valor. Also put a load of Charlottes in tiny holes in undug soil under card and have a sack of those also. Have no idea how I am going to manage to eat all of these and am guessing that they'll spoil well before we run out! Am going to cut back on the amount I plant next year as it's ridiculous for just 2 of us.

[Snadger]

First year I've grown spuds in the ground in quantity as it's the first year I've had the lottie. To be honest I didn't expect that much but from 3 No 4' by 10' beds I still have some earlies left (not many now though) of delicious Ulster Classic, about half a sack of PFA (not tried yet as so many others), about half a dozen Purple Ryecroft (delicious but poor crop), 3/4 sack of Romano and over 2 sacks of Valor. Also put a load of Charlottes in tiny holes in undug soil under card and have a sack of those also. Have no idea how I am going to manage to eat all of these and am guessing that they'll spoil well before we run out! Am going to cut back on the amount I plant next year as it's ridiculous for just 2 of us.

The inherant beauty of Tattiemans way is that you can have fresh potatoes over a longer period of time, all in their own little mini 'clamps'!

He's got me kinda convinced so I'm going to give it a trial next year.

If nothing else it will save me having to go out and dig spuds for dinner as I can store the mature bags in the garage and have another crop of something else growing where they were situated!

[tattieman]

Yes that is the way Snadger.
I found it a really novel way to do it and it works.
Alison I am glad to hear your spuds were good. We have a great crop of Ryecroft purple this year but they don't produce many tubers at the root.
The more you think about the bags you know it makes sense.
You will find more people doing this. Only snag is I suppose someone could steal them from your plot!!!!
But lets not worry about that.

[Alison]

If nothing else it will save me having to go out and dig spuds for dinner as I can store the mature bags in the garage and have another crop of something else growing where they were situated!

Good God, I'd never get away with bags of tatties in compost in the garage! Enough of a problem being allowed to store sacks of dug up ones in that prime bike space!

The more you think about the bags you know it makes sense.

Bags may well be the way for some folks and that's fine however I'll stick to the soil. It gives me the incentive to give it a good dig over at least every four years (4 year rotation) and I found it incredibly easy. Didn't find digging up a problem and it really suited me, just need to buy less seed pots for next year as it worked too well this year.

[Two_Sheds]

If you had really good fertile soil and mixed it with some compost it would be great ...Once the roots are out of the bag they can get moisture from the ground. Once you try this you will not go back to growing spuds in the ground.

I've been looking at your videos (I keep replaying just to hear your accent, young man)

I'm going to give it a go next year, but I won't be buying any plastic poly pots (are they about 50p each?). I'm going to use some of the 300 Morrisons flower buckets that are in my shed. I'll plant them up with one seed spud each, and sink them in the soil.

I grew carrots this way last year and it worked really well (less fly damage)

I think I'll use MPC and garden compost with a bit of topsoil mixed in. To help prevent scab I need a more acidic mix than my soil provides (but not too rich a mix: perhaps leafmould would be good?)

Interestingly, if alfalfa (lucerne) is grown before the spuds, it reduces infection. cool, I've got some alfalfa in already.

[tattieman]

Hi Two sheds, yes the polypots are about 50p but you can re use them many times and they have holes in them already to let the roots come out of the bottom. I put extra holes in them.
Your home made mix sounds good and should do the job.

[zazen999]

I had a dream about this last night - so I guess I'm in!

[Two_Sheds]

I had a dream about this last night

Me too! I've only had 2 hours sleep: tossing and turning about my scabby potatoes. Mental.