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Growing tatties in furrows?

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  • #1

    Growing tatties in furrows?

    I noticed a lot of my allotment neighbours have there spuds in already and they are earthed up.
    Just as an experiment I've made some furrows and trenches but put my spuds in about 4 inches deep into the trenches rather than in the ridges.
    Theoretically I should be able to 'earth down' rather than earth up with the ridge material and it will be very helpful if frost threatens.

    Anyone else done/do it this way?

    On another area I've dibbled them in on the flat but only part filled the dibbled hole with soil, my logic being that similar to leeks the holes will fill naturally through watering and give the spuds a bit of room to grow.
    My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
    to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

    Diversify & prosper


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  • #2
    I like the planting them in the trenches idea....might try that one meself.. Makes sense really to have a pile of soil ready to tip over them.
    S*d the housework I have a lottie to dig
    a batch of jam is always an act of creation ..Christine Ferber

    You can't beat a bit of garden porn

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    • #3
      I did it last year as a test and it worked well. I planted a few really deep and just covered all the way back up but am sure some got lost along the way.

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      • #4
        This generally how I plant my spuds. Once they're through the ridges of earth either side seem to offer some frost protection.
        Wendy

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        • #5
          I'm growing all my tatties in containers this year but when I plant them in open ground I use the trench method and earth down then up as the plants grow.

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          • #6
            Yup, I do 'em like that too. In fact both ways - I start off with the trenches, planting the spuds into the bottom of the trenches with a hand trowel, then as they start to pop through, gradually fill up the trenches from the ridges. Then when I get too tired of digging trenches, I swap to digging individual holes, and just partly refill the holes.
            I try and get the bigger maincrops into the trenches; the Setanta and the Sarpo especially - the Sarpos are terrible for popping out of the surface later in the season, so they end up being earthed up. Then the early maincrop and the second earlies go into the individual holes. It worked really well last year, didn't lose any of em to frost, unlike some of the container grown ones...

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            • #7
              I usually dig a trench a spit deep about two weeks before planting and add either manure or compost along the bottom, then after a fortnight has passed, place the tatties in the bottom of the trench, and fill the trench in, using the excess to form a ridge - I do not earth up as I go as I am generally too busy looking after other more delicate crops / flowers / shrubs etc.
              This year I am growing tatties for show so will be doing most of my own growing in polypots x 46, but will be planting about 35kg of tatties in the gardens I look after.
              Rat

              British by birth
              Scottish by the Grace of God

              http://scotsburngarden.blogspot.com/
              http://davethegardener.blogspot.com/

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              • #8
                I always do that Snadger, I could never understand why it was done the other way. I started like that, because that is how you are told to do it. But then I found I didn't have enough soil to earth up properly and the potatoes started growing out of the side of the mound.
                So I changed and dig a big hole, put some garden compost at the bottom and earth up from the mounds either side.
                The only problem with this, is it does tend to need a very deep hole, so you don't want shallow top soil where you do it.
                "Orinoco was a fat lazy Womble"

                Please ignore everything I say, I make it up as I go along, not only do I generally not believe what I write, I never remember it either.

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