Why is noone speaking to me!?
Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter
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Colin Miles
- KG Regular
- Posts: 1025
- Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2005 8:18 pm
- Location: Llannon, Llanelli
Come on chaps and chapesses, surely someone knows something about growing potatoes in exhibitor growbags! Is this a foolproof weigh of defeating slugs? Is the yield worthwhile or is it just a way of getting a few spuds to exhibit? Or maybe it is just a pain in the proverbial?
If you are worried about slugs plant Kestrel. Dig a 8in trench cover the bottom with compost and drop your seed potatoes in cover with compost and keep rakeing the earth over as they grow. In june start digging up...cook and eat.
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Colin Miles
- KG Regular
- Posts: 1025
- Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2005 8:18 pm
- Location: Llannon, Llanelli
Thanks nog! But unfortunately my experience with Kestrel and slugs was not a happy one and it wasn't just slugs I was concerned about but the whole idea and use of these growbags. It begins to looks as if noone has used them - are they that new? Jason?
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Martin D.
Hi Colin, I tried this last year to try to get some decent show potatoes without having to drench them in pesticides and it worked well. I used old 25L John Innes bags with extra drainage holes made in the bottom of the bag, and 2/3 filled them with the mixture shown on Medwyn Williams' website (article of 11th March 1998 for example):
Each bag got an initial fill 15L of his special mixture:
Irish Moss peat 30L
Calcified seaweed 12oz (it was wet otherwise would have been 8oz)
Vitax Q4 (pelleted) 8oz
Dried blood 1oz (optional but helps on the less vigorous varieities)
Thoroughly mix
The tuber was planted 2" from bottom of bag (bottom of tuber position) each reduced to 3 sprouts ideally to give a better tuber size.
Some support needs to be given to the haulms to stop them from flopping everywhere and getting damaged.
The yield wasn't that high - possibly 1Kg per bag. It would have been better if I had watered them more often as we had a few dry months this year and/or used water retaining gel perhaps. The potatoes were very clean - no sign of scab, wireworm damage or slug damage. The potatoes in the normal beds next to those in bags suffered from a lot of keel slug damage this year - no sign of that with those in the bags - although the usual larger black slugs tried to eat the foliage unless picked off.
So, the bag grown potatoes were very good for showing (and eating!) but it is an expensive method of growing potatoes unless a cheaper/more environmentally sound substitute for the moss peat can be found (then we're back to pH issues as most council composted green waste has a higher pH than you'd want for scab-free potatoes - hence the use of the peat). I think I got proportionately better yields using large tubs or barrels (eg cheap plastic dustbins) than with the exhibitor type growbags/pots - probably to do with soil volumes I suspect more than anthing else - or more even watering?
I'll be growing a few in bags next year just for showing, some in dustbins and some in the ground with and without woodash added to the planting hole as recommended on the website (Lizzie?).
Martin
Each bag got an initial fill 15L of his special mixture:
Irish Moss peat 30L
Calcified seaweed 12oz (it was wet otherwise would have been 8oz)
Vitax Q4 (pelleted) 8oz
Dried blood 1oz (optional but helps on the less vigorous varieities)
Thoroughly mix
The tuber was planted 2" from bottom of bag (bottom of tuber position) each reduced to 3 sprouts ideally to give a better tuber size.
Some support needs to be given to the haulms to stop them from flopping everywhere and getting damaged.
The yield wasn't that high - possibly 1Kg per bag. It would have been better if I had watered them more often as we had a few dry months this year and/or used water retaining gel perhaps. The potatoes were very clean - no sign of scab, wireworm damage or slug damage. The potatoes in the normal beds next to those in bags suffered from a lot of keel slug damage this year - no sign of that with those in the bags - although the usual larger black slugs tried to eat the foliage unless picked off.
So, the bag grown potatoes were very good for showing (and eating!) but it is an expensive method of growing potatoes unless a cheaper/more environmentally sound substitute for the moss peat can be found (then we're back to pH issues as most council composted green waste has a higher pH than you'd want for scab-free potatoes - hence the use of the peat). I think I got proportionately better yields using large tubs or barrels (eg cheap plastic dustbins) than with the exhibitor type growbags/pots - probably to do with soil volumes I suspect more than anthing else - or more even watering?
I'll be growing a few in bags next year just for showing, some in dustbins and some in the ground with and without woodash added to the planting hole as recommended on the website (Lizzie?).
Martin
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Mr Potato Head
Not wanting to sound like a blatant advertiser sort, but I had noticed that next months issue of KG has an article on this very subject... 
out on Jan 5th!
http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/nextmonth.php
out on Jan 5th!
http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/nextmonth.php
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Colin Miles
- KG Regular
- Posts: 1025
- Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2005 8:18 pm
- Location: Llannon, Llanelli
Many thanks Martin and Mr Potato Head. Sounds as if the 14 litre bags may be a bit restricted in size. And will the Jan 5th edition be too late for supplies from T & M? Any chance of a hint as to whether they are good or a no-no? I am tempted to order and experiment half bags and half ground.