Breaking the rules

[alan refail]

I am well aware of all the "rules" regarding potato growing. This year I broke the ones I always break - and then some.

What follows is an account, not advice.

Over the winter I tipped barrowloads of fresh hen and duck manure and woodshavings over the grass on the bed and left the hens to scratch it about and spread it and the worms to pull it down.
A couple of weeks before planting I dug the bed over lightly.
31 March and 1 April I planted all my potatoes, first earlies, second earlies and maincrop.
I planted fresh stock except for Nicola which is impossible to find round here and I object to buying and paying postage on a single pack. I saved some healthy tubers from last year.
I planted no more than 4 inches deep, with a trowel. My soil is very stony and impossibly tiring to trench.
I did not earth up as if I do the hens get in a scratch down the ridges - wasted effort and exposed tubers.
I have dug the remainder of my first earlies this morning together with the Nicola. I have never had such a heavy crop of Nicola, despite the dry weather.

Dons tin-hat and waits for flak

[Marken]

I say "Well Done" Alan.
Rules about how to grow are only guidelines after all, what works for one person in one area wont apply to another person in another area. I've often followed my gut instinct and done what I thought was right at the time and I must say on another forum I incurred the wrath of a few contributors!
One question though, did you allow the chickens access to this site while the potatoes were (are) growing? Didn't they damage the emerging shoots?

[macmac]

Before they made rules people did what worked.....

[Geoff]

Potatoes are silly this year - dug a 22oz Rocket yesterday amongst a massive yield off one root.

[alan refail]

One question though, did you allow the chickens access to this site while the potatoes were (are) growing? Didn't they damage the emerging shoots?

Hi Marken

They were let in over the winter - after that they get in
They would be good at training people how to break into Colditz
As for the ducks, they are applying for jobs training limbo dancers

To answer your question: No, they didn't damage the growing shoots, fortunately.

[Marken]

Alan, they must have foreseen that roast potatoes go very well with roast meat and didn't want to push their luck!

[Colin_M]

I'm still a beginner in this area - can you tell us which aspects you were most surprised by Alan:
- Manure?
- Not earthing up?
- ?

I never got round to earthing mine up at the "correct stage" this spring, so did it a little later. I'd also not done anything to the soil in the previous months, but a barrow load of excellent (though fresh) manure appeared in May, so I put some into the gap between the rows of one variety.

It will be interesting to see if this has had any effect. It's probably closer to the tubers than yours was, so may prove to have been a mistake.

[alan refail]

Dear Colin

What was I most surprised by? Well, everything really.

Up to 9 or 10 years ago when we moved to Wales I used to grow up to 40 varieties of potato every year - in 30 foot rows. On good, friable allotment soil which has been dug over in the autumn I dug trenches 8-9 inches deep, liberally put in compost and well rotted horse manure, earthed up twice or three times. Despite never having blight or any other disease my crop was only slightly better than using my "lazy" methods.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that for the past 9 years I have planted all potatoes (earlies and maincrop) a foot apart in rows about 14 inches apart.

[alan refail]

Finished digging the rest of the potatoes this morning. Charlotte - good crop; Rooster - massive crop; Cara - fairly good but some slug damage.

...and no blight

[Colin_M]

Finished digging the rest of the potatoes this morning. Charlotte - good crop; Cara - fairly good but some slug damage.

The foliage on mine has nearly all died down now. I still have quite a few Charlotte in the ground, but am never sure how best to treat Salad potatoes.

Apart from the inevitable slug damage caused by leaving them there (esp. with all the rain recently) is it best advice to dig and bag up salad spuds for storage now, or leave in the ground to maintain the thin soft skin etc?

[alan refail]

Hi Colin

I would dig them up. The Charlotte I dug yesterday had quite enough slug damage - leaving them in the ground would result in many fewer potatoes.

Alan

[PLUMPUDDING]

I've lifted the Charlotte, Yukon Gold, Highland Burgundy Red, Kestrel, Orion and Desiree today. I've managed to dry them off between showers and will bag them up in paper sacks tomorrow. I'm amazed at how little slug damage there is with all the rain. Only four potatoes out of all the lot have a hole in.

I treated the potato beds last year with nematodes which may have helped. There seem to be very few of the tiny keel slugs which cause most damage to potatoes, but lots of the big chunky ones.

I think there would be a lot more slug damage if I left them in the ground much longer so play safe and lift them when the tops have died down.

[Colin_M]

Thanks Alan, well I've dug some of the Charlottes and they're all pretty big. Generally in good condition - a few of them have some scaly bits and one had been munched at one end.

The other thing I am noticing (compared to previous year's Charlottes) is that they need very carefull cooking to prevent them falling apart near the end. Taste is fine though.

[Mike Vogel]

Another rule: remove all "volunteers" [or "keepers"].

Every yerar I end up with a nujmber of plants from keepers which I've failed to notice. I harvest them as earlies and have not had any complaints; no damage from slugs or wireworm and no blight. This year I've had so many that I'm way behind harvesting the second earlies. Some of these are from potatoes I planted as long ago as 2006. Fortunately, I'm also getting a lot of Pink Fir Apple, keepers from last year. I didn't order any this year, so I'll have a decent crop of late potatoes after all!

[Monika]

I find Sarpo Mira produces a lot of 'volunteers'. In spite of very carefully going through the soil when harvesting, they always turn up the following year, presumably because they have a wider spread than many other varieties. We always dig them out the moment they appear, mainly to preserve the 3-year rotation.