potato earthing up - why?

[Two_Sheds]

Demeter, it's the nettles that make the soil so wonderful - they are full of nitrogen. Treat your nettles as a crop, and harvest them to improve your compost or to make nettle tea, or to 'grow' some Peacock Butterflies:- peacock on nettle on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[*Lavender*]

Hello! I'm growing some potatoes in a tub but can anyone tell me how to earth up?

Do I cover the leaves as they appear, or let them grow for a bit them completely cover them again? I planted the potatoes about halfway down the tub so there is room to "earth up", only I'm unsure exactly how to do it lol!

[Mikey]

I'm experimenting with chopped down nettles (mostly, theres some thistles and grass in there too) as mulch (for courgettes so far but i'll probably sling some on my earlies tonight as they're ready to earth up) as I have a seemingly unending supply of these so I figured they may as well do me some good incidentally.. anyone know where I can get a scythe/sickle? feel this would make quicker work of them than the shears tho i'd have to be careful not to chop off anything i don't want to (like bits of me.. )

How about ebay, there is one on there at the moment for about £8, which is a traditional style.

[Demeter]

Demeter, it's the nettles that make the soil so wonderful - they are full of nitrogen. Treat your nettles as a crop, and harvest them to improve your compost or to make nettle tea, or to 'grow' some Peacock Butterflies:- peacock on nettle on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Yeah it all sounds so good - but - our plot is shared between four families and between us we have seven children aged 0 to 5 - hence my nettle bloodlust - stingers and toddlers do not mix well! I wouldn't mind except every child stung means at least 20 minutes when a mummy can't work

There are as I said various nettle patches nearby for wildlife but we would rather find crops for our own plot that don't sting (e.g. we are growing comfrey on the verges) or take over valuable growing space (we have a pretty small plot considering there are four families).

I really don't think you can convince me - If nettles got up in the night, collected slugs for the chickens, watered all the plants and then brought me tea in bed in the morning - I still wouldn't grow them deliberately on our plot - although of course I'm happy to enjoy the benefit of the beautiful soil they've left behind!

[Demeter]

Hello! I'm growing some potatoes in a tub but can anyone tell me how to earth up?

Do I cover the leaves as they appear, or let them grow for a bit them completely cover them again? I planted the potatoes about halfway down the tub so there is room to "earth up", only I'm unsure exactly how to do it lol!

We've let ours grow until they are about 6 inches or so and then covered them in earth (then repeat a few days later when they've grown another 6 inches!)

[Mikey]

Perhaps I come from a sheltered background, but I do like this site. It had never even occured to me that others didn't actually earth up potatoes.

I've always done it to stop greening, and to make it easier when digging up, but now I have a whole load of other reasons for doing so, cheers.

As a Jamie Oliver fan, I would like to point out that in his first series Naked Chef (I don't count the bit part he played alongside ruth and rose)he did keep herbs on his windowsill!!(a gardener in the making me thinks), which he grew himself.

He may well annoy a lot of people but I still like him, he's a decent human being that genuinely cares about many issues, but more importantly is prepared to stand up and be counted even when it might affect his pay cheque!

[Gwyndy]

I think that we earth up potatoes so that we can watch the weeds growing in nice little mounds!!

[rogesse]

Love the grass as mulch idea - as I'm basically lazy and hubby has just strimmed the grass on our absentee neighbour's allotment (nearly as tall as me, all 5' 2"). Our allotment inspector told me not to earth up and I doubted him until I read this thread. He also told me not to bother watering, something about encouraging deeper roots (true?) - mind you he wasn't too impressed that I was about to plant out beans and sweetcorn, muttering about frost and June some 50 years ago

[citygirl]

and would you believe it. the big patch of grass outside our house was mown today. so there's me running after him in my slippers, asking him nicely, to "leave the clippings for me tatties, please"

tomorrow i get the street kids to help me bag it all up - job's a good 'un

[Demeter]

He also told me not to bother watering, something about encouraging deeper roots (true?)

I think the idea is that if you water them, the surface will be damp and the roots will have no reason to go deep - but if you don't water them (or not much anyway) the surface will be dry and the roots have to go deep to find water. Deep roots means the plant won't suffer when the surface dries out in dry conditions, meaning that once the plant is established you pretty much don't have to water it at all. (Not on clay soil anyway! Dunno about whether you would have to water soil that is more free-draining.)

[rogesse]

Thank-you Demeter - really thank you! I've got clay soil......and 20 long rows of potatoes (plus stuff in barrels). The thought of haulming (or is it hauling) the lot and especially regular watering without a ready supply (long walk up allotment site armed only with two watering cans) - well, I had to go sit in the shed and have another cup of tea!

[Two_Sheds]

Dunno about whether you would have to water soil that is more free-draining.)

That's the whole point - you don't water the soil! Cos it just evaporates! you water the roots - usually just when the plant is producing its fruit - have a look at the earlier threads on Watering, or use the Search button to have a furtle around the archives.