Potato compost bugs, what can i do?
Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2020 3:19 pm
Hello everyone...
I'm a few years into growing my own veg for the first time and have been slowly expanding what i grow.
I have grown 1st early potato's in raised beds in the past to varying success and then had to spend the next 2 years removing rogue potato plants that keep growing, obviously due to me not being able to find all the spuds in the beds when i dug them up.
So this year, i have used some small green potato growing bags and shop brought compost to grow the spuds.
I have just emptied the first bag and got a few meals out of it and the potatoes taste good and don't look like they have any issues with decease or been eaten by bugs, but now i have a problem.
What do i do with the left over compost and is there a bug issue with it?
I have read online that i can put the spent compost on to raised beds but make sure i put it on a bed that wont be growing potato family crops next year as per crop rotation rules.
I would have been OK with this but the main problem is that when i dug down and found the original seed potatoes, there were hundreds of tiny white creatures in them and I'm not sure what they are or what to do with the compost as i don't want to throw it away if i don't have to.
After doing some research, I think they may be springtails. the creatures are white, 1 to 2 mm in length, move quickly and can jump like fleas!
I know some creatures and bugs are beneficial for the soil but being a newbie i don't want to make assumptions and possibly infect my raised beds.
I was hoping to maybe grow a second round of the same variety of spud in the compost to see if i could eek out another crop from the compost before putting it on the beds but after finding these creatures in it I've hit a wall and have no idea what to do!
Another thing i was considering was to put the compost through a hotbin composter that i got this year but i read that you shouldn't put any part of a potato or tomato plant in a composter because of possible disease, but I cant seem to find any definitive info on this regarding whether this applies to hot composting as well. If the compost can go in a composter would the creatures contaminate the compost or die in the heat?
Sorry for writing a book but being a newbie I didn't want to miss any details out.
Any help regarding these matters will be gratefully received.
Thanks
Gary
I'm a few years into growing my own veg for the first time and have been slowly expanding what i grow.
I have grown 1st early potato's in raised beds in the past to varying success and then had to spend the next 2 years removing rogue potato plants that keep growing, obviously due to me not being able to find all the spuds in the beds when i dug them up.
So this year, i have used some small green potato growing bags and shop brought compost to grow the spuds.
I have just emptied the first bag and got a few meals out of it and the potatoes taste good and don't look like they have any issues with decease or been eaten by bugs, but now i have a problem.
What do i do with the left over compost and is there a bug issue with it?
I have read online that i can put the spent compost on to raised beds but make sure i put it on a bed that wont be growing potato family crops next year as per crop rotation rules.
I would have been OK with this but the main problem is that when i dug down and found the original seed potatoes, there were hundreds of tiny white creatures in them and I'm not sure what they are or what to do with the compost as i don't want to throw it away if i don't have to.
After doing some research, I think they may be springtails. the creatures are white, 1 to 2 mm in length, move quickly and can jump like fleas!
I know some creatures and bugs are beneficial for the soil but being a newbie i don't want to make assumptions and possibly infect my raised beds.
I was hoping to maybe grow a second round of the same variety of spud in the compost to see if i could eek out another crop from the compost before putting it on the beds but after finding these creatures in it I've hit a wall and have no idea what to do!
Another thing i was considering was to put the compost through a hotbin composter that i got this year but i read that you shouldn't put any part of a potato or tomato plant in a composter because of possible disease, but I cant seem to find any definitive info on this regarding whether this applies to hot composting as well. If the compost can go in a composter would the creatures contaminate the compost or die in the heat?
Sorry for writing a book but being a newbie I didn't want to miss any details out.
Any help regarding these matters will be gratefully received.
Thanks
Gary