Slugd potatoes

[Baldy]

buggers
advice re varieties that don't appeal to the slimey ones.. not been a good day spud-wise

[bario1]

Growing in bags seems to help?

[Snoop Puss]

I've been advised to use sulphate of iron in potato patches for the same reason. Not great for earthworms, though you do find reports saying that earthworms relocate elsewhere rather than dying.

[Greenleaves]

Slug-resistant cultivars:*‘Charlotte’, ‘Estima’, ‘Golden Wonder’, ‘Kestrel’, ‘Pentland Dell’, ‘Pentland Ivory’, ‘Pentland Squire’, ‘Stemster’, ‘Sante’ and ‘Wilja’

Well thats what the RHS says

[Martin H]

From personal experience, the slugs leave Charlotte and Desirée alone, they much prefer to eat Rooster and Cara.

[1Bee]

I've had badly slugged charlottes and desire in the past... sorry.

But the charlottes do seem to do better, they've been okay this year. I did find that when my roosters were almost a dead loss, the Sarpo blue danube had barely any damage.

[Baldy]

I inherited 3 potato grow bags - they certainly seemed to suffer far less from the slugs but its been tricky to keep them adequately watered during the dry period we've been having. Will probably go that root next year and give up on growing direct in the soil.

[1Bee]

Even taking into account losses for slug damage, I always get much better yields growing in the soil than any time I've tried growing in containers/bags. But I guess it depends hugely on what varieties you want to grow, what your soil and conditions are like etc.

[Aberdeenplotter]

In a previous plot I had horrendous problems with keeled slugs ruining my spuds and then I learned about slug nematodes. Watered onto the drills immediately before earthing up and it worked . Not cheap though but very effective

[Penellype]

Even taking into account losses for slug damage, I always get much better yields growing in the soil than any time I've tried growing in containers/bags. But I guess it depends hugely on what varieties you want to grow, what your soil and conditions are like etc.

I agree yields are bigger in the ground in most cases, but if you are going to store the potatoes and most are damaged, its not good. Last time I tried to grow potatoes in the soil (at my friend's) most of the bigger ones were eaten by rats. (There are always rats near stable yards). The rats don't seem to bother with potatoes in containers.

[1Bee]

Good point, Pene.

I really want to grow the elusive baking potato... the holy grail of a large, undamaged tattie.