Kitchen Garden Forum

I've started digging my main crop spuds this week and have already accidentally pierced quite a few. I try to insert the fork as upright as possible but does anyone have any top tips to avoid this problem ?

Hi Mikew,

You can buy potato forks specifically but they are quite unyielding & heavy (well mine is) & it still stabbed some. What I tend to do is grub out the spuds which is just having a dig with my hands to remove the loose dirt which reveals the top spuds which I pop in a bucket. What happens when you remove the top few spuds & soil is you will find a defined hard edge which is the limit of the outward growth as the spuds loosen the soil they grow in. You can then mostly safely use the fork just outside this edge to get the deeper ones up as fork will be on an upward lift going under them not through them.

Mike, I start by pulling the halm out, this disturbs everything but you just need to start well clear and work your way in. I don't think there is anything special beyond the obvious.
Everyone spears some, just as everyone misses some.

Morning Mikew, I have been gardening for many years and still manage to stab a few….and it always seems to be the best potato on the root too….