Is this a weed, or me spuds?

[Martin H]

This thread is a bit confusing, 'plant deeply and don't earth up, or plant almost on surface and earth up a lot? '

Yes, I think it shows that potatoes have such a store of energy that they can cope with whatever we throw at them.

Personally I plant them just a few inches deep at the bottom of a trench. This way they don't have too much work to do before hitting daylight and a chance to re-charge. It also makes covering (with soil or fleece) really easy if frosty nights are forecast and, in due course, earthing up turns the trench into a ridge.

This works for me but I see all kinds of different treatments on the allotment and they all seem to work.

[Taterhead]

Will keep an eye on mine, was advised by another chap on our allotments to plant them deep without earthing up as we have a rather exposed and windy site, it will be interesting to see how they cope. Thanks for all the replies

[starloc]

I was shouted at the other day by the next door neighbour for planting my potatoes incorrectly......( well....I think thats what he was saying.... ) he jumped over the wall saying nay nay nay at me and planted some flat, told me to keep them flat....asked someone else who speaks English and said they never earth them up

I have been digging a trench about 6 inch deep and then filling it in and earthing them up 12 inch or so on the top...., did 6 inch last year and they were through in no time, been quite bad frosts here so mega earthed up....

Apparently....the correct Bulgarian way to do it is to dig a 6 inch deep hole , stick the potato in and fill it in, thats it....no earthing up.....

So im doing an inaccurate test.....

100 of the Sarpo mira seed potatoes are 4 inch deep and flat on the top , I will earth some rows of them up to test that as well
200 of them planted earthed up so i get some of them....

all with same level of fertiliser sprinkled around them,

all the rest of the potatoes are already planted earthed up and needing to be re earthed up every day was not going to risk them all

Will see if it makes any difference!

[Kristen]

This thread is a bit confusing, 'plant deeply and don't earth up, or plant almost on surface and earth up a lot? '

Either is fine

Or there is a third / middle way: dig a trench (heap the soil alongside). Plant in the trench and lightly cover. As the plants appear (and particularly when frost is forecast and there are leaves showing) pull some earth from the ridges alongside back into the trench.

Eventually all the soil from the ridges will have been put back in the trench and the ground is now flat. You can continue to earth up making a ridge along the row of plants.

It depends how much earthing up you want to achieve ...

... my thinking is that it makes little difference for Earlies. They don't have enough time, from plant-to-harvest, to develop many tuber-bearing-stems off the main stems. Whereas for Maincrop varieties there is more time, and they generate more stems, so worth earthing up more.

[Martin H]

I have been digging a trench about 6 inch deep and then filling it in and earthing them up 12 inch or so on the top...

If you do the earthing up before they grow, they will sometimes grow out of the side of the mounds searching for the light, which can look a little untidy. But they will grow fine.

[weed]

you lot are very slow i have just eaten five new shiny spuds ok ok they where from plants that had popped up from last years crop that had been missed and i had to dig them up as i was preparing my runner bean pole area this years spuds are also in deep at the other end of the garden and have started to show a few days ago. taterhead you are a lot further north than me so you are probably a week or two behind hold tight it wont be long now.

these are the smaller ones i have eaten today





as for making mistakes checked my runner beans in the green house only to find a quarter had rotted off to much watering so had to plant some more oh well hopefully it will stagger the harvest

[mothhawk]

One of the reasons I plant mine deeply is to avoid having to earth up. Not something I ever find time to do and find that I don't need to if I plant deeply and then add a bit of a mulch when they first break through. MUCH less work

^^^^^snap! Me too Alison

[Penellype]

Potatoes will grow pretty much whatever you do with them. The question really is why are you doing what you are doing. I plant mine about a foot deep in containers because I like them to fill the container, and they don't make potatoes below the seed potato. I usually fill the containers nearly full when I plant them because I find it easier, but sometimes if I haven't enough compost readily available I will half fill the container and add more later.

If you are growing potatoes in the ground you have different considerations. One of them may be that if you plant them very deep you have to dig down a long way and risk leaving some behind to grow the next year. This is much less likely in containers because you can tip the whole lot out. So if I was growing them in soil I would plant them less deep and earth up. Part of the reason for earthing up is to cover more of the plant so that there is less likelihood of potatoes forming too near the surface and going green. I find they tend to do this anyway, especially the maincrop varieties.

[Martin H]

Jim on Beechgrove last season gave another reason for earthing up: the ridges catch the sun and are warmer than flat ground (assuming your rows run East-West like they should). This encourages the plants to grow quicker and stronger, resulting in a bigger crop.

[Penellype]

I've been using that principle with my Rocket spuds, putting them in black buckets in the greenhouse. They are certainly growing well and already have flower buds. I haven't dug any up to check for potatoes yet.

[BertieFox]

It is interesting to see people's actual experience in the plant them deep and don't earth up debate. The conventional wisdom is "Planting them deeper does not help because potato tubers form up just below the surface of the ground." and 'Failure to earth up leads to a much reduced crop'.

My personal experience over the last couple of years, with surface planting and mulching with various materials to 'earth up', and planting under black polythene, with mulch added around the growing plants, that it is the amount of available water and the weather that influences the crop most.

Early blight has been the most limiting factor in the last few years, but as potatoes ARE swollen stems and not roots, logically planting them deeply will just delay the emergence, not lead to many more potatoes buried deeply in the soil.

Sounds like we all need to do some experiments using a range of all these different techniques in the same year and note the difference in yields.

[lottieguy]

Hi Ya, very interesting about earthing up or not, plant deep or not. I have my own way of doing it and dig fairly deep and earth up. On new ground the cultivation of spuds helps clear weeds. I feel that each to their own. Newbies do it the way you find suits you. If it doesn't work you can always try some thing different next year. Learning by trial and error is good. Some dig some don't it's all down to the individual. Any way I digress, in the end was it a weed or no? I think it was a weed. Happy gardening.

[Martin H]

It seems that you get a reasonable crop however you do it, so everybody tends to stick with the first way they tried.