Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi there,

I've been reading about growing potatoes under black plastic and I'm wondering about trying it.

It's is not clear to me what people actually use. Could I use black bin bags? Could I just use cardboard boxes?

Please let me know what you've tried / think!

I've a major slug problem and have found this method of shallow growing under both cardboard sheets or black polythene had a huge amount of slug damage, far more than ones planted in the normal way. I used the thicker black polythene that you can buy by the metre, but used compost bags cut down two sides work if you aren't covering a large area and have plenty of bricks etc to hold them down.

Would you advise putting slug control under the plastic, or would that we a bad idea?

Good suggestion about compost bags - I have quite a few.

I did put slug pellets down, but perhaps should have lifted the covers regularly and checked underneath as the slugs seemed attracted to the cosy dark damp hiding place complete with a tasty potato snack.

Ok, I'll bear that in mind. Maybe I just try it with one row. I guess I could also put some slug traps under the plastic.

One a separate, but related matter, I've read that some people seem to sow their seed potato's into a trench that has been filled with muck / newspaper or grass. What is your take on this? I guess if you were applying this to the black plastic idea, it would like dumping newspaper / muck on top of the soil, putting to seed potatos down on top of the muck / newspapers and then covering it up with the plastic.

All I have done is spread some farm yard manure on the surface (back in November). Do I need to do anything more than this?

I tried this method about 30 years ago maybe it was a bit longer, i was not impressed with the results, the idea at the time was to roll the black plastic back to reveal patatoes big enough to eat then refit the plastic therefore lengthening the cropping season , i did not work for me

Hello MC
I have also tried growing under plastic and had similar problems that others have mentioned. Even with slug pellets under the plastic the slugs will eventually win. Watering becomes a bit of a problem as the plants mature and I think this could have had something to do with the rather average yield I got.
What I do now is mulch one or more rows of earlies with a good layer of straw. Don't use hay as this will go mouldy. It works well - you can easily water through the straw and keep it topped up once in a while with a few more slug pellets. Its much easier to scrabble about under the plants as well to fetch out the first few really earlies. Finally the straw can be composted when the crop has finished.
Here in the sticks bales of straw are easy to come by.
Best thing about these methods is that little if any earthing up is needed and the rows can be set closer together.
John

John,

Are you saying you use straw in place of black plastic?

How deep do you think the straw needs to be?

Thanks
Nigel

Hello again MC
Yes - no plastic just a mulch of straw thick enough to exclude light say 6 in (15cm) or more. In fact I don't put the straw down until the seed pots have started to poke through the soil.
If there is a problem with this method I suppose its the birds who pinch some straw for nesting - most years its not too bad and and its easy to just add a bit more.
John

Out of interest, is this the "no dig" approach to potato's?

I have grown potatoes under heavy duty weed suppressant fabric in the past with success.

Barney