Spud spacing

[Pies]

Hi all I have earmarked two beds for spuds next year.The bed sizes are

12ft x 4ft

9 ft x 4 ft

Im thinking of planting late spuds in the bigger bed, spacing 18" and 12" between rows as below
----------------------------------------
12
X 18 X 18 X 18 X 18 X 18 X 18 X
12
X 18 X 18 X 18 X 18 X 18 X 18 X
12
X 18 X 18 X 18 X 18 X 18 X 18 X
12
----------------------------------------
Giving me 21 late spuds,will this spacing cause me any peoblems or are there certain varieties I should avoid


Earlies will go in the smaller bed with 12" all round giving me three rows of 8.So will this be enough room or should i take some out

TIA

[jacob marley]

Ithink that the spacing between rows is not enough the reason being not enough soil between rows to earth them up i would put 2 rows in the bed leaving then you will have enough soil along the outside of the bed to earth them .
Ps i do not use the bed system so it may be ok with your narrow spacing but i do not recomend..jacob

[FionaH]

I had 2ft between rows last year, any less and as Jacob said there wouldn't have been enough space to earth up

[zazen999]

That's if you do earth up - have you thought of trying Tattie Man's bag method?

[Alison]

I put my earlies in a bed at 12" spacing both ways last year and they were great. My main crop were spaced a bit further apart, with 6 rows of 3 (ie 18 total) in 4' by 10' beds which must have meant that that the spacing was somwhere along the line of 16" one way and 20" the other way. Worked well and although I was rather lax in my earthing up I didn't get any green potatoes.

[solway cropper]

In such a small space I wouldn't bother to earth up. Just cover with a mulch as the tops develop. I used grass clippings and wood chips last year and I know that some people use old newspapers.