Earthing up potatoes

[VirginVegGrower]

I pull a trench, then use a bulb planter to get the potatoes even deeper. I pop a little bed of compost into the bottom of the planting hole and cover over. As I pull the next trench, it earths up the adjacent row. I plan to add leafmold on top of the ridges this year too. Maybe grass clippings/shredded nettles if I can guarantee it's twitch free.

[Aberdeenplotter]

We can get frosts up here in Aberdeen in June and earthing up is part of the process of protecting the shaws (haulms you call them south of the border) from the frost damage so it is essential for us. It is also necessary with some varieties which tend to throw the developing spuds through the surface of the soil turning green in the process as covering with soil prevents that defect. The constant movement of the soil is also beneficial in that it prevents weed seeds germinating. It's why spuds are considered to be such a good crop to use in cleaning up a weedy plot.

[Feral007]

I always mean to earth up, but it doesn't seem to happen in time. We've late mulched some this year. But a couple got missed. I really will make an effort next year, and I think I'll go with the do it when you plant it, method; because earthing times seem to be the busiest times of the year.

[Rhona]

Dig trenches, then use a bulb planter. I find it much easier to earth up that way.

[binley100]

Dig trenches, then use a bulb planter. I find it much easier to earth up that way.

I did that but think I went a bit deep . When I came to dig them up I'm sure I couldn't get them all I think they maybe in Ferals garden.........

[Dynamo]

I always mean to earth up but I never get round to doing it properly. Because of that I always end up with lots of wasted spuds growing above the surface

This year I've promised myself I will.

[WendyC]

I plant mine in a traditional trench and earth up as they grow but struggled to move the earth efficiently. Tried a spade, then a hoe, finally when I bought my adaze I found it brilliant for shifting the soil as you can pull plot towards you. Saves my back too!

[sammy_roser]

For the first year I am growing my earlies in bins, putting three potatoes in the bins half filled with MPC annd then topping it up with soil and grass clippings and anything else.

[vegnut]

I dig a trench one spade depth then add a hand full of fresh grass for each seed potato and cover. I mound the soil up to start with so i have more time sowing and weeding the rest of the plot. This makes the potatoes reasonably deep so is safe from early frost although they take slightly longer to emerge. Compost is thrown all over the beds in early winter, which breaks down and feeds the soil nicely.

[Mr Bones]

Another fan of the azada here. This year I'm planting 268 seed spuds spread over twelve different varieties. The beds having earlier received 56 barrow loads of composted rabbit hutch muck (now dug in) will be trenched out to about five inches, spuds put in then earthed over to about five inches high. Earthing up will continue in stages as the plants grow.

[redcard]

ive tried all sorts of ways - i personaly do earth up because thats the way i have been taught to do it - but no matter what method i use they always seem to grow - so i think no way is better than another - just what suits you

[shona_b]

I usually dig a trench and put a layer of compost in - doesn't matter too much if its not fully "composted" - whatever is in a dalek goes in! The spuds get about half the trench filled back in but I still leave an indent to help with watering. Once they have shown themselves I do keep digging back over the soil until they are proper ridges - it helps me know where to dig as well if we have to cut the foliage away due to blight.

[planetologist]

I've been taking the chits off my potatoes, plant them indoors, and then eat the potatoes.
I read somewhere that you get the best harvest when potatoes are planted 6 to 9 inches deep, so I take the above plants from the second half of April onwards, plant them 6 to 9 inches deep, and if they're not tall enough yet, I leave a hole so that the plantlet gets sun, then fill the hole to soil level once the plant has grown above the soil. Other than that, I don't earth up.
Because I grow potatoes staggered in a bed with equal spacing all around, not in rows, I find that there's never any soil "available" in the bed with which I could earth up, and lugging it from another part of the garden is too much work.

[hawthorns]

in my edged raised beds i will be planting my potatoes 2/3" down and then ridge them up as they grow with yr old leaf mold. im doing no dig method

[Snadger]

I never earth up my tatties..................lifes too short.

Used to, and found no appreciable difference in yeild apart from more 'green' spuds.

Plant mine deep, about 9 inches. If per chance they have poked there heads up above ground before the last frost, I'll cover with straw or newspaper.