Kitchen Garden Forum

On my inspecting my spuds this evening i noticed that some of the greenery is beginning to show its head.

Dumb question alert.

Am i supposed to completely cover the the greenery with earth, and let the plant keep fighting for the light, or am i supposed to let the greenery through and just keep the actual potatoes covered.

Thanks Mike

Dear Tiltonblue, i let the tops grow to about six inches before i start earthing up, then i let them grow another six inches before the final earthing up.

You can get away with just one earthing up with earlies if you want.

The only time i earth up when they are just coming through, is if a frost is forcast.

Many thanks for the reply OH

Mike

Hello Tilton
I do the same as OH and earth-up in two stages. Its best to do it after a thorough watering or some decent rain otherwise you might just be piling dry soil over the plants. That'll keep the light off the developing tubers but every bit of moisture helps in the early stages.
Another thing I do, though I can't say I ever seen the idea mentioned in any books, is to earth-up in the late evening. Most varieties of potatoes in the early stages of growth close their leaves together at dusk as though they are praying (nyctinasty). This is particularly marked in a cool evening after a hot day. Earthing up is easy then as the plant's leaves are nearly upright so you can easily draw up the dirt around the plant without smothering loads of its leaves.

Hope this helps.

John

John I take it you mean that you draw up SOIL around your potatoes, dirt is something you get on your hands and clothes. Sorry about this but I don't like soil been called dirt.
Bren

I am mixed up now because I am sure I read somewhere a few years ago that you should not water until the plants were flowering. Today I have read that you should be watering as soon as possible. We also earth up but do you only do it twice or do you keep doing it? Do you need to feed them even though there is muck in the bottom? So many questions normally we just put them in and leave them to their own devices but as soon as you start reading about potatoes you think that you are going to get a disaster.

Nice new word John - nyctinasty, I'll save it along with my other favourite word - thigmomorphogenesis. That is a very good tip to make earthing up easier too.

I use 4" lengths of down pipe sunk up to 1" in the middle of two rows of spuds( I have 5 of them standing like sentinels along each of my potato beds). I water with a lance attachment into each pipe during dry spells.

It prevents too much water on leaves, it keeps the top soil dry but keeps the growing area moist. It also means that I can water whenever I pass the lottie, no matter the time of day nor the degree of sunshine.

My 1st earlies do not get earthed up too much, but the 2nds and main crops are, with the pipes re-adjusted as I go along. Thanks for the tip about evenings John, I can adjust my behaviour too to incorporate that!

You are quite correct John, we always try to earth up when using a potato ridger for the reason you gave, we hope less damage is done.

Barney

Hi Tiltonblue,
Just to add some confusion into the subject mine are earthed up from day one as are commercial crops.
JB.

catherine said,

I am mixed up now because I am sure I read somewhere a few years ago that you should not water until the plants were flowering. Today I have read that you should be watering as soon as possible



the watering when flowering advise , was that the tubers are swelling when the plant is flowering so watering then goes to tuber growth rather than growing bigger leaves. hence giving a better return for commercial growers.
i guess you could argue that watering earlier in the season as well will result in bigger healthier plants which will form more tubers, which will need more water at flowering to give peak yields

Bren wrote:John I take it you mean that you draw up SOIL around your potatoes, dirt is something you get on your hands and clothes. Sorry about this but I don't like soil been called dirt.
Bren

Hello again Bren
I guess you won't be watching 'Dirtgirl' then!!!
If you change your mind though here are a few clips.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/dirtgirlw ... orldclips/

John

Catherine, maybe what you read was that it is important to water spuds when they are flowering and less important at other times. I have always left my spuds to their own devices, but I have tried to water them when flowering unless there has been a lot of rain at that time, but now that I have more time to devote to growing, I'll make a point of dousing them when in flower.

I've always found it difficult to water potatoes once they have a good canopy of leaves. Most of the water just runs off the foliage into the trenches between the rows where it does some good I suppose. Last year though I pegged a soaker hose along the top of a row after final earthing up. This worked really well later on as I could keep the row well watered all the time and I finished with the most productive row of spuds (Winston) that I've ever had. In my other two rows without a hose yield was far less - not quite a fair test though as they were different varieties.
Memo to self: put soaker hose on all your rows of potatoes this year!

John

PS Irregular watering is possibly worse than no watering as you just finish up with loads of wierd irregularly shaped potatoes.

If your Potatoes are really well earthed up they should not need irrigation.
Commercial crops here rely solely on natural rainfall and no other form of watering and the harvest is enormous.
On my plot I only grow early varieties and never water them.
JB.