Planting Potatoes through weed resistant membrane?

[Chef_uk]

Planning ahead to Spring, Is it ok to plant potatoes through weed suppressant fabric? Would they still require earthing up if undercover? And if i can grow them under cover, can i just plant them straight in without lifting off the fabric and digging out any hardier weeds that may have survived the sunblock?

[SarzWix]

Yes, no, and yes

My first year I planted all my spuds through weed control fabric - just cut holes at about 18 inch intervals then dug a hole with a trowel and dropped the spud in. Pretty much left them to themselves after that except for some liquid feed about mid season. Crop was okay, not huge but would have been better with more feed or some manure.
Definitely worth doing though as a way to use uncleared ground. Works for beans, courgettes, squashes and sweetcorn too

[zazen999]

You can cut the cost and do it through cardboard as well.

I recommend leaving it in situ for a few weeks, and then using a bulb planter to cut the holes, and drop the plug of soil back on top.

[FionaH]

I did spuds through cardboard last year and got a crop. Quite a bit of slug damage though, maybe they liked the cardboard!

[zazen999]

They will do Fi - it's why I only grow slug resistant spuds! 99% come out clean as a whistle.

[FionaH]

Name rank and number of said spuds please Zaz?! I grew setanta for their blight resistance last year. seems like you think of one thing and get clobbered with another

[zazen999]

I could tell you but I'd have to kill you.....

One is Kestrel and one is .....hmm....I might have to faceache you on that one as it is quite a rarity - I have mentioned it on here before though.......

[FionaH]

Ok cheers, lips are sealed and all that

[solway cropper]

Tried it and went back to earthing up/mulching as I got such a lot of slugs. I also grow them above ground in flower tubs and polypots which gives a very clean crop.

[Alison]

I did it last year on a section of the plot which had never been dug. Simply cut back the grass, dug up the big weeds, covered in card and then cut through and planted spuds with a bulb planter. Added a bit of potato feed and then weighted the card with bits of wood, old tyres etc. Looked a bit grotty until the potato foilage took over but got a brilliant crop in terms of number of Charlottes, no slug damage really at all but they never seem to go for my spuds - too busy eating baby lettuce / brassicas I think! Well worth a go and the soil was easier to dig over after the roots of the weeds had died off a lot and the beds that are now there have definitely benefitted.

[Aberdeenplotter]

There are a few issues here the first one being I'm puzzled as to why you would you want to grow potatoes through membrane in the first place. One of the major benefits of growing potatoes is that because the ground is worked continuously throughout the season (digging, trenching and setting up ridges, furrowing up and finally harvesting) it is an extremely useful crop for cleaning up a piece of ground. I'd go so far as to say that anyone taking over a new plot that is in poor condition might well be advised to crop the whole area in potatoes the first season. The haulms/shaws also keep down weedgrowth by excluding light but you will get that advantage whatever system you use.

Having said that, potatoes will grow in any no dig system provided the haulms or shaws, as we Scots call them, can get out in to the open air and the tubers are placed on or in soil or compost so that the roots have access to moisture and nutrients. I have in the past just placed potatoes on the ground and emptied the contents of my compost heap over them and had a good crop.

If slugs are a problem, best organic way to cure this problem is to invest in some slug nematodes. Ground needs to be around 55 degrees for them to work but they do work very well. If growing conventionally best time to apply them is just before furrowing/earthing up.

[Alison]

There are a few issues here the first one being I'm puzzled as to why you would you want to grow potatoes through membrane in the first place. One of the major benefits of growing potatoes is that because the ground is worked continuously throughout the season (digging, trenching and setting up ridges, furrowing up and finally harvesting) it is an extremely useful crop for cleaning up a piece of ground. I'd go so far as to say that anyone taking over a new plot that is in poor condition might well be advised to crop the whole area in potatoes the first season. The haulms/shaws also keep down weedgrowth by excluding light but you will get that advantage whatever system you use.

As I said above, the main advantage for me was that I didn't need to work the soil through the summer, I was in the process of reclaiming the plot and had enough digging to do already, if I'd had to work that area as you describe it simply wouldn't have happened and I'd have had zero crop from that area. The lack of light in that area caused by firstly the card and then the growth caused major weed reduction and also the grassy land that was there to break down leading the area to be much easier to dig through when I harvested the potatoes. If I'd just planted the seed potatoes straight in the ground without any supressent material then the weeds would have choked the newly emerging plants. I agree if the ground is already cultivated then it's not necessary to put card / membrane down but in my case it was essential and really helped