Ricard with an H wrote:......
Peter, thanks for the photo. An impressive sight, all those spuds and so neat and tidy. How is your back ?
Pa Snip wrote:Good job jobbed there Peter. Nice rows.
I put two 15ft rows in on Saturday (16 x Jazzy each row) and have not ridged them up yet. Not planning on ridging until they are starting to show through unless we have late frosts.
May cover them with fleece.
Peter, what row spacing did you use ?
It is fine Richard, no heavy lifting apart from the concrete posts.
Pa Snip, I look at commercial practice and don't worry too much about chitting (machinery knocks the sprouts off and volunteers don't get that molly-coddling) and I earth up at planting so I know where they are. it also protects them from frost and reduces the amount of Peterprints left on the soil. (Similar rationale with machinery)
Nearly four feet between centres, which leaves room for my Merry Tiller to be run down between the ridges without biting them.
Technique.
Lay out the rows starting from the main path by inserting canes along the side paths at measured distances.
Set up the string on the first set of canes as a guide for all subsequent dibbing and drawing.
Start from the path and dib the seed potatoes in using a trowel, earth up with a hoe drawing towards the path, then place scaffold boards on the area soil was drawn up from.
Walking on the boards draw up the side nearest the path.
Go down the side the boards were removed from with a Wolf three prong cultivating hoe to leave a tilth.
Take a break.
Move the string to the next set of canes.
Using a 5'x2' piece of plywood and a smaller piece to lie on, on top of the boards do the dibbing in, shuffling /swapping the board from under my legs to in front of me as I move along.
Then repeat the drawing up process.
Repeat until out of seed potatoes and take extra care on spacing for the last row.
The earthing up is done in four passes per side with a six inch Dutch or Draw Hoe, I use it first at an angle so a corner goes in, then again flat, pass one gets a low ridge, pass two a cleaner flat cut of the same bite and pass three takes a wider bite, with pass four tidying it up.
It takes me around forty minutes per row, oh yes and it was all throughly rotivated prior to even considering planting as that makes the drawing up WAY easier even despite last weeks rain.
