earthing up

[Florence Fennel]

Like TS I use all sorts of stuff to earth up with and I do it but I leave the tips of the leaves showing. I've only grown in containers so far, but my son helped me to plant in the ground yesterday. He's dug two trenches and put the soil in buckets surrounding the bed so that I can earth them up quite easily. I've a couple of bags of grass clippings as well.

[Two_Sheds]

Snadger... "pockets"?
Wassat, then?

Snadger isn't doing rows. He's planting where & when he gets a space in the garden. Everything is all mixed up together in a kind of organised chaos

[BigShot]

Ah of course! The nearest I've been is square foot but as delightfully messy as that is, it's not a patch on pockets.
For a moment there I thought I was missing some sort of fancy thing to try out.

I'll get around to pockets some day.
"Ornamental Kitchen Garden" was about that, wasn't it?
It's on my reading list.

[Alison]

I only really plant my spuds in the ground and don't really bother earthing up at all anymore. Didn't get around to it one year and found the harvest was just as good as normal so skip the job and do something else.

[EddieJ]

The main thing to remember is to actually put the potatoes in before earthing up!

I knew that it was all going to well last weekend!

[Snadger]

Ah of course! The nearest I've been is square foot but as delightfully messy as that is, it's not a patch on pockets.
For a moment there I thought I was missing some sort of fancy thing to try out.

I'll get around to pockets some day.
"Ornamental Kitchen Garden" was about that, wasn't it?
It's on my reading list.

Geoff Hamilton evolved to a middle class version and Bob Flowerdew is always experimenting..........like myself.
'Pockets' to me are randomly shaped small planting areas within a potager type layout.

[Sarico]

Sorry but I'm new to potatoes. I understand that cover up completely or not is up to the frost. But in nice days when should earth up the potatoes. What I mean is my potatoes are just showing the tip and is about 1 cm tall. Should already cover up? And when leave the tip showing how tall should be? Thanks

[jdlondon]

You don't actually need to earth up at all

Before I found you all, I never even knew you did that to potatoes as a matter of course. My parents have grown them forever and they never did; however, told dad about this earthing up method recently and he's going to give it a go.

[donnakebab]

If you plant spuds at the recommended spacing it is a pain in the butt to earth up unless you just pile stuff on top like grass cuttings or leaves. Otherwise you have to plant deep and save the dug out soil for earthing.

I find that by the time you come to crop you have given up on earthing because of the effort and the fact that so much other stuff is requiring your attention at that time in the season. This year I'm going to do the piling on grass cuttings and leaves. If you think about it moisture will be retained and once you have cropped all that 'mulch' can be dug in for the benefit of the soil and whatever you plant come autumn or next year.

[Kaiya]

Last year I got confused and buried my potatoes below ridges (rather than earthing up later on). Those that did emerge randomly out of the side of ridges were pretty pitiful, and then died back during summer, perhaps blight? but actually made a handful of decent spuds. However, I found digging wandering potatoes out of heavy clay soil almost impossible without either spearing them with a fork or slicing them in half with a spade. I fully expect a herd of volunteers this year also. So I'm going to try the shallow hole and newspaper/grass clippings mulch method this year. Most are Anya's too, so cleaner potatoes would be advantageous for such nobbly customers.

[Chef_uk]

Is it worth planting maincrop yet or still a couple of weeks early?

[Kaiya]

Gosh I haven't even planted my second earlies yet... am I late?

^ Kaiya is not an expert and has never successfully grown spuds.

[Two_Sheds]

Is it worth planting maincrop yet or still a couple of weeks early?

Mine are in

Maincrop are in the ground longer than earlies. Therefore, if your area is prone to blight (in late July/Aug) you need to get them in asap

[Sanjo]

Sorry but I'm new to potatoes. I understand that cover up completely or not is up to the frost. But in nice days when should earth up the potatoes. What I mean is my potatoes are just showing the tip and is about 1 cm tall. Should already cover up? And when leave the tip showing how tall should be? Thanks

Since it is so early in the growing year Sarico and your tops are already showing I would be inclined to cover completely due to the risk of frost.
I personally don't think it's crucial how much of the top is left showing (except for frost danger of course).
However much there is, or even none at all, they will continue to grow and you'll just repeat the exercise.

[Snadger]

I experimented with 'earthing down' last year instead of earthing up!

I formed a few ridges like normal tatty planters do but I planted the spuds 6" deep in the hollow section!

As the tops came up I gradually shifted soil from the ridges over them until eventually soil was level. It worked a treat for me, and very few 'green' tatties!