Kitchen Garden Forum

My allotment has been under water for a while. Now that the flood has subsided I find that my potatoes have largely rotted in the ground. (Not blight)
There`s no way I can dig them up properly, most of them have more or less disintegrated.
Thing is - can I just dig the plot over with the potatoes still in there?
Will it affect what I can do with the ground next?
I`d be grateful for guidance.

Hi Elderflower,
I think a great number of people are sadly in the same situation as yourself. If you remove what remains of the haulm and dry it out and burn it. Then dig so that the remains of the potatoes are well buried.
Do not grow a root crop on that soil next year.(Which you wouldn't do in a normal rotation) So in 2009 everything will fine. If you manage to get any volunteers next year do not allow them to grow keep hoeing them out.
JB.

It might help you to know that I missed 3 rows of spuds last year and this year they have just grown again and are fine. So no need to panic at least.

I'm sure others will have more info.

David

Ooops!!
JB.

I know I am an embarrassment, I even had to have one of the other plotholders point them out to me. I have been busy and my plot isnt the best managed.

I also managed to grow elephant grass to 4ft high which covers a multitude of sins. I do feel quite proud of my grass though as looking around knowone else seems to have been able to grow it - maybe I'm special.

D

Hi David,
No need to be embarrassed. I know a place where a commercial contractor forgot to lift a twelve acre crop and the farmer who leased the land out simply left them there and had a magnificent crop the following autumn. When you consider he was paid anything up to £300 an acre for the previous years crop he was quids in. Had he lifted the original crop he could not have sold it in law but the following year at 16 tons to the acre plus the money the previous year what a bonus!!
JB.

i once helped a neighbour lift about an acre of two year old spuds, somehow they didnt get lifted the year before, there was a mix of good 2nd year spuds and part rotted old ones. most of the rotted ones were picked out on the harvester and ploughed in. i didnt ask what happened after they were tipped in a heap in the shed . provided you make sure you only store sound ones you should be ok

Thank you for the advice - I was dreading trying to find and remove slivers of rotting potato in the ground!