potatoes in containers-earthing up

[mrs baggins]

I have some potatoes in a heavy duty bag on the patio and noticed they were coming up last week but i forgot all about them!!! yesterday I looked and thought I should do something but they had grown so much. They must have been about 8-9 inches of green growth and didnt know what to do so I just put a load of container compost on top of the growth. will this be ok? I know I should have done it much earlier but now i am worried that there was too much top growth!

[shirlthegirl43]

They should be fine. I don't think there is much you can do wrong with spuds so long as you remember to water them.

[busylizzie]

It's the first time I've grown potatoes and I'm doing them in containers too. The instructions I got with my potato buckets said to earth up when there was 6 inches of growth and earth up 4 inches, so leaving 2 inches clear at the top.

So sounds like yours wasn't far off that.

I've been doing it with mine and they are romping away so I think something's agreeing with them!

[SlugLobber]

By earthing up, you mean just top up the compost, yes? I've got some spuds on the go, too and want to make sure. I keep seeing references to 'earthing up', but never a description of what this is!

Thanks in advance!

[shirlthegirl43]

Yup, top up the compost.

[mrs baggins]

hmmm. may have been a bit vigourous with the earthing up as I have covered mine!! may uncover a coupla inches later!

[Norm]

I keep seeing references to 'earthing up', but never a description of what this is!

Earthing up is simply banking soil up towards the base of the plant, so you get the foliage growing through an inverted 'V'. It is supposed to promote additional root growth to support the plant so it can produce a better crop and covers any spuds near the surface so they don't go green in the daylight.