Follow on crop following pathetic potato harvest

[polc1410]

I think I have a diagnosis. I think my spuds have Black Scurf. Depending where I read this is cosmetic or affects crop yield. I'm saying mine affected yield.

I've read that its more common if the ground is wet and cold after planting which makes sense as I think we had snow after planting!

So next year there are no spuds going in those two beds I think and I'll hope that my other beds are not affected but as the majority of the plot had been potatoes last year it may have been.

What more can I do? Not plant my spuds so early?

Buckets etc? But even my bag wasn't great and I don't know if it had Black Scurf - we were assuming we had some very sticky dark compost!!

[polc1410]

Yep, it's permanent once it's planted. I have mine edging 3 sides of my lotty (the fourth is fenced, with bramble & ivy for the birds).

It's well worth growing a clump: it produces loads & loads of leaf which can be made into a top-quality liquid feed, or used as a mulch, or added to leafmould to give you a rich potting compost. Good stuff.

Would comfrey ccompete with the nettles that border my plot?

[esbo]

Well that sounds very different from me, I planted about the same time although mine are king edwards which are a main crop I am told (I have no idea about all this early stuff lol bit of a novice).

I certainly had tonnes of green on mine so much so they have all fallen over (they grow sideways to try for more light and the rain flatten the lot, but they are still green and growing albeit horizongally!! , 2-3 feet high I'd say, was a decent crop on the one I dug up early (about a pound and a half ie 630 grammes) - just had some of them for dinner - flipping delicious

Mine are also in a pretty shaded area they get a lot of shade so I don't expect much from them.

Didn't use any fertiliser apart from scattering some chicken pellets (not a lot as they aint cheap)
but I did dig in a small bit of compost, mainly grass cutting and semi-rotted turf I dug up, also added some urine to the water. better then flushing it down the loo!

I wonder if the carpet has a negative effect on the soil? Stopping air water etc, possibly promoting disease??? ie kind of 'killing' the soil?

Also (has it been mentioned?) maybe a weed-killer was used on the soil before the carpet?

I stuck a tomato plant I had in a pot in where I dug the spuds up

Still have a few more toms in pots so I will put one I need some more potatos for dinner.

[Jamesy_uk]

Well, I think I said before in another thread I have quite light soil in my potato bed and I dug it over September/October last year and had terrible crops this year, small plants and very few tubers etc. Best way I had it described to me it rained so much last year all the goodness got washed out of the ground where it was left barren for so long and then when the potatoes grew there was a shortage of food for them. This meant the plants were stressed and set tubers and grew them as fast as possible so they could reproduce, makes sense but not sure if it's entirely right.

[polc1410]

Well I lifted the next row today. Better crop. Not weighed it yet but must be close to 5kg from 8 tuber seeds. Seen better but nothing like the last 2 rows which wont have had 3kg in the two rows in total!

Very little sign of the little black spots - so I think it may have been down to me putting the first two rows in the ground a week earlier than the others and then the snow coming back.

Got some Phacelia Tanacetifolia as a manure anyway so when the last row comes out that bed it'll be handed over to this pretty flow to do its best to (a) keep the weeds down and (b) perk the soil up a bit. Guessing I'll move the spuds some place else next year as well...

[Two_Sheds]

Would comfrey ccompete with the nettles that border my plot?

Not sure how you mean?
They grow alongside each other perfectly happily

Got some Phacelia Tanacetifolia as a manure ... to (a) keep the weeds down and (b) perk the soil up a bit.

Green manures really need to be cut down before JUST before they flower, to put maximum goodness into the soil. you can (and should) leave a few to flower, for the bees and for seed