Noone told me it would take so long!

[Colin Miles]

Ok I was a bit naive and didn't think it through. Fed up with slugged potatoes I jumped at the KG show potato offer with growbags, all 60 of them. And with a ready-made 18', 4' high mound of turves under plastic waiting to be sieved it seemed ideal. But 60 x 14 litres is an awful lot of soil to sieve, even mixed with compost. And rolling back the plastic I found the turves a bit soggy underneath and a lot more moss in the turves than I had bargained for. Yes - the grass has probably gone after a year, but not the moss. And sieving wet soil is a more than a bit difficult. So far planted 20 half-filled pots. Anyone any suggestions?

[oldherbaceous]

Hello Colin, do you really need to sieve all of the heap. Years ago we just used to chop the old turves up with a spade, to about the size of a walnut. We used to use this for melon and cucumber mounds in the greenhouses. But if you do want to sieve it, it would pay to brake it up to let some air in to dry it out a little. By the time you have finished you will have arms like Popeye.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

A Little hard work never hurt anyone.

[Jenny Green]

Yes, I wouldn't bother with sieving the turves, as long as they've broken down a little. Just make sure they're grass/moss side down and that the potato shoots will be able to penetrate through them.
There's a method growing potatoes where you lay the potatoes on grassed land, then cut the turf around the sides of them and lay them upside down over the potatoes. It's a bit more complicated than that, but I used this method once and the potatoes grew fine through the sods.

[Colin Miles]

Thanks for the comments. I will certainly have to do something more inventive. Unfortunately there are wireworms still living in the stacked turves, a tribute to how much moss there was. I think I shall have to bash them with the back of a spade and giving them a good shake.