Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Feeding my tatties

Collapse

X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Feeding my tatties

    Okay folks, I have a dilemma which I am hoping you can help me with. Any suggestions or experiences eagerly sought !
    One of the growing spaces available to me this season is a shaded, very damp patch of clay soil that has hitherto been used in a half hearted way as a tattie bed. It is covered in creeping buttercup and couch grass, plus annual grasses.
    I have available to me, as feed, some cow manure, from a pile that has been sitting outside for at least a year. Also leaf mould, as fetched from the forest nearby. Last but not least, we have bree from a compost heap in a wheelie bin with a tap at the bottom - powerful stuff, very like worm wee !
    The main problem is, the man whose ground it is didn't realise that it was needing fed well rotted manure at the beginning of the winter. So he wasn't too worried about the manure we fetched, and much of it was not at all well rotted - it looks as fresh as the day it left the byre, in fact.
    So if you were in my shoes, how would you feed the ground to ensure a good crop ? How and with what would you dig over the ground to make sure of the nutrients in it ?
    All very last minute I'm afraid...(Although there is still snow on the hills here, so despite the soil warming it will be a while before the season really gets going.)
    There's no point reading history if you don't use the lessons it teaches.

    Head-hunted member of the Nutter's Club - can I get my cranium back please ?

  • #2
    You can get potato fertilizer that you put in the hole with the spuds.
    Gardening ..... begins with daybreak
    and ends with backache

    Comment


    • #3
      DOH !! <smites forehead>

      So used to not spending money... but I would here. Ta !
      There's no point reading history if you don't use the lessons it teaches.

      Head-hunted member of the Nutter's Club - can I get my cranium back please ?

      Comment


      • #4
        However, I wouldn't grow potatoes in a shady patch - they grow very long haulms and don't bulk up properly.

        Comment


        • #5
          Don't have much choice I'm afraid. I don't have a garden of my own so I am relying on other people's generosity.
          I have this sudden image of dreels three feet high with haulms six feet high, trying to compete with a Leylandii hedge...!
          There's no point reading history if you don't use the lessons it teaches.

          Head-hunted member of the Nutter's Club - can I get my cranium back please ?

          Comment


          • #6
            Yes, that's what happens.....you end up having to stake them

            Comment


            • #7
              Snohare if I were you I would plant some early potatoes such as Swift or Dunluce which produce short Haulms and grow a crop very fast. As you state the area is shaded so the crops may take a bit longer to grow. The area has been in grass for a while so could harbour wireworm eggs which will hatch around August time and make holes in yours spuds.
              My thinking is that you apply the cow muck to the area and then try and work the other organic matter you have into the potato trench to break up the clay and harvest the earlies before the wireworm strike. I would buy a box of good fertilizer such as Vitax Q4 or something similar just to give them a boost as they grow.
              Potato videos here.

              Comment


              • #8
                you end up having to stake them
                Strewth ! Really ? Are you having me on ?

                apply the cow muck to the area
                What I suggested to my friend was that we only use the crumbly black stuff as a top dressing. Can we really use the green smelly stuff with the uncomposted straw, looking fresh from the cow's backside ? The clay is not too solid, the main problem is the loam is like a damn sponge and just does not drain well. Soil falls off the spade like lumps of wet cement.
                So far I have bought Orlas and Pink Fir Apple, I was rather thinking of Osprey or Kestrel, maybe Lady Balfour for the rest.
                I wonder, would I do better to just grow my Jerusalem Artichokes there this year ? I have been promised other ground to grow tatties on...(Which is sunny and well drained, what problems it may have I have not discovered - yet.)
                There's no point reading history if you don't use the lessons it teaches.

                Head-hunted member of the Nutter's Club - can I get my cranium back please ?

                Comment

                Latest Topics

                Collapse

                Recent Blog Posts

                Collapse
                Working...
                X