How are you planting your tatties........

[binley100]

Everything harboured slugs last year........especially my swedes

[cptncrackoff]

I was reading an old veg book that I got from my father 70's or maybe 80's, there is a little part about laying potatoes on the earth and then covering with straw, I remember thinking you'd have to make sure you used enough to block out the light, but there was a picture which looked compact and ok.

Whilst looking for that I just found in another book 1972 that potatoes can be grown by laying them on the soil, cover them with black polythene cut a cross above the seed potato, it says this greatly reduces the amount of watering and weeding but you need to put a 'healthy amount' of slug bait under the plastic! lol

I think i'll go for trenches, maybe a little of my homemade compost, then earthed up in the usual way.
nothing too fancy!

[Jamesy_uk]

You thought about trying Sarpo spuds?

I am hedging my bets this year with half Desiree and half sarpo.

[binley100]

Who me?..........I'm probably going with Desiree again for main crop and a few random ones to try ...

[Jamesy_uk]

Oh and back to the original topic I will be doing traditional trenches and earthing up but will be putting down a mulch between the rows, as to what the mulch will be I am not sure yet.

[lottie dolly]

I dig a small hole with the lady spade,putting soil at other end of row,place spud in hole,and plonk the soil of the next dig on top of the first,then i use a larger chillington hoe to form a little ride,that way i know where they are,then hoe up as and when,it also helps keep the weeds down,plus,i do not have a mass planting day,1 or 2 rows at a time,and nothing added,but this year have got some manure spread on the top,the rain should automatically feed them,am just trying it this year,
I got 2.5 kils of arran pilot,the others are all self saved,salad and roosters,i still have some from last year,although the roosters got some worm holes,they have kept great,so glad i did not compost or burn them all,

[buzzingtalk]

Its my first year planting spuds, so whatever the easiest and most fool proof method is. Any reccommendations? Also recommendations for seed potatos I can sow direct (as I can't chit in my house) would be great, am looking for first earlies and some reliable and trusted maincrops there is a mine of info out there and I'm struggling to sift through it all in time.

[Alison]

I'll do the same as I always do, dig a hole about a foot or so deep in the bed, sprinkle in some fertiliser in the bottom of the hole and then back fill. The beds will have had a good dressing of compost prior to this too. Don't really bother earthing up as I'm quite lazy and only have about half a dozen green spuds as the growth of the plants themselves keep the light out after a while anyway. I think it depends on your soil type as to the cleanliness part, my brother has very heavy soil and it's a right pain to dig them up but mine is much lighter and you can brush most of it off as they dry out before storing.

[Alison]

Also recommendations for seed potatos I can sow direct (as I can't chit in my house) would be great, am looking for first earlies and some reliable and trusted maincrops there is a mine of info out there and I'm struggling to sift through it all in time.

You can direct sow any seed potatoes, they'll probably take a week or so longer to reach maturity but there isn't much in it.

[Bigmallly]

Its my first year planting spuds, so whatever the easiest and most fool proof method is. Any reccommendations? Also recommendations for seed potatos I can sow direct (as I can't chit in my house) would be great, am looking for first earlies and some reliable and trusted maincrops there is a mine of info out there and I'm struggling to sift through it all in time.

This may help you through the minefield but no guarantees........

How To Grow Potatoes | Potato Varieties Explained |

[mrgrower]

As I have only just started on my plot I have one bed dug which I'm looking to grow spuds in however at the moment the soil is still cloddy so could do with a good hard week of frost failing that I'm thinking dig a hole leaving plenty on distance between each one, compost the bottom, spud in, compost to cover then keep filling as the shoots show that way the soil get organic matter the spuds help break down the clay and I can keep working on the couch grass problem due to the spacing between the holes.

Thanks for the link by the way Bigmally. A question I have already bought Maris Piper and see they are a main crop tatty when would be the best time to plant them out and whats the best way and place to keep them stored until it's time to plant them out? I never quite understand when to plant earls second earlies and maincrop tattys plus when buying tattys you see them labeled 1st and 2nd earlies but never maincrop or not in my experience???

[~kirsty~]

In terms of not been able to chit indoors - my house is very sheltered yet my seed potatoes seem to be doing ok... shoots not leggy at all, so potentially i'd still try to chit if possible.

I've heard good Friday is a good potato planting day... i'm planting all mine around the same time, just harvesting days would be different... but i'm also aiming to get to use my earlies beds later in the season too.

[redser]

Last year I tried two different ways ....

1. Dug a trench and then planted into the bottom of the trench so I could just tip the earth in as they grew and
2. Lay them on compost and just kept piling straw, grass cuttings on top ....

Results were on the whole a better and cleaner crop from the straw. Considering the soggy weather there surprisingly was little slug damage. One of the oldies (ex farmer) at our lottie says that the deeper they are the better the yield .....well unless I couldn't get them all out then that wasn't true .

So this year I'm going for a sort of half and half and planting through holes in cardboard which should save earthing up . I'll chuck compost etc on the beds , cardboard on top . cut holes and plant the tatties through . If the cardboard looks like its decomposing then I can chuck grass clippings, leaves etc on top . Hopefully then when i lift my cardboard they'll all be just lying there ........

Got the idea from a wonderfully informative course I recently attended run by a very clever lady

Thinking a bit more about the planting through cardboard method because I want to do that, what would you do about late frosts? Earthing up is a good way of dealing with that. Thanks

[binley100]

I'm hoping the cardboard keeps the underneath bit warm and might use newspapers and leave to cover tops if it looks like frost but that only depends if I can get up there to do it ..I've had growth checked by frost before but it usually recovers ..

[snakeshack]

I dig trenches one spade depth and plant the spuds in the bottom then add a 6 inch layer of FYM.when they show through i use the soil from the trenching to earth up then top up the earthing wth straw as a weed suppressant.having the manure at the bottom helps to retain moisture and also allows easier digging up of the spuds as the fork penetrates better on my heavy clay