As usual, I'm looking for the Other Way of growing things!!
1. Conventionally, Potatoes are planted in trenches.
2. As the potatoes show above the soil, they're earthed up.
3. Earthing up is done to stop the potatoes seeing the light and turning green and poisonous.
4. No dig gardeners lay the spuds on the soil and cover with compost/straw.
My questions - after earthing up, do more spuds grow higher up the stem above the original soil level?
............Or. do the spuds form deeper in the ground?
Why am I asking?
Could you grow spuds in a very shallow bed, say 4" deep on a solid base or in a shallow planter, rather than in a bucket?
Earth them up with cardboard or perforated plastic?
Just asking?
I’ve seen spuds grown in thin layers of straw. Can’t remember how exactly it worked. I saw it on tv years ago. Thinking about it. I might of been watching blue Peter when I was a kid.
No help to you at all.
No idea, but have often wondered about earthing up......why don't we just plant them deeper to achieve the same effect. I'm not a potato grower but I'm sure those who do will tell me.
I've only grown potatoes in either buckets or containers I make a hole using a bulb planter then pop the potato in. No earthing up, it seems to work fine.
My gran used to get a good crop from potato peelings that she just threw on the ground.
(21-01-2021, 11:47 PM)JJB Wrote: [ -> ]No idea, but have often wondered about earthing up......why don't we just plant them deeper to achieve the same effect. I'm not a potato grower but I'm sure those who do will tell me.
I prepare the ground by rotovating, then rake it level, set my lens and place a seed spud about 10’’ apart, then I dig a hole about 8-10’’ deep and put the seed spud in the hole with the main chit facing up. I then fill n the holes and rake over the soil to form a drill, later then i earth up on this. I do think more potatoes grow as you Earth up.
I grew potatoes in the ground for the first time last year, I used a bulb planter so that was the depth per seed potato.
My 'earthing up' consisted of covering the growth with grass and tree clippings.
The only difference this year will be what materials I have at my disposal to earth up.
Potatoes have quite a root system and the tubers form along these roots, so I believe limiting depth could limit crop numbers and crop size due to congestion. If you had to grow shallow then I would give more room between plants. It may also mean that the plant is a bit less stable in wind. I've tried earthing up with additional compost or newspaper and grass clippings and both methods seemed to do the job equally well, I can't see why cardboard wouldn't work.
I'm a no dig gardener but I use a bulb planter to plant potatoes and a fork to harvest. Growing potatoes in no-dig is a bit of a compromise for me.
I believe that you would get more potatoes earthing up which serves 3 purposes 1/gives frost protection 2/prevents the potatoes going green and 3/helps break up the soil, this is the reason people are advised to plant potatoes in a new garden (its not the potatoes that break up the soil) but I am not sure that you get a heavier harvest with earthing up, as for putting them on the ground and covering them with cardboard I think they would grow aas long as you keep the light off them, as for perforated plastic, yes you will get a crop any rain water will go through the perforations but so would light, whet I have done in the past is covered the ground with black plastic cut a X where I wanted the potatoes and placed them in a slight depression then left them as the shaws came through I covered them with newspapers when frost was forecasted, I did get a good harvest of nice clean potatoes, (remember if you have potatoes growing and they get caught by frost spray them with cold water and cover with newspapers to keep the sunlight off them) as for the last part of your question, I think I would put some compost into the depression to feed the plants and you would get a crop if you keep them covered with cardboard
I have been thinking on your question Veggie and I think that it will be a project to work on, I think I will try growing 4 different ways using 1st. bucket with soil as control, 2nd. with a layer of soil then kept topped up with cardboard/paper, 3rd. layer of soil topped up with mix of cardboard/paper and leaves 4th. layer of soil topped up with a mix of cardboard /paper and seaweed all will be fed with a comfrey feed as required, I will also keep a photo record, I might even give vidio recording a try
Last year I planted as usual about 4" down and then earthed up on top of that. when I harvested, some were in very wet ground. A lot of potatoes lower down had rotted and newer ones had grown above them that had a lot of green in. The yield was not good in those areas either. Never happened like this before. The land does seem to be getting wetter in more recent years.