Potato Planting

A well chitted potato - shoots are short, stout and well coloured. These have been kept in a bright and airy shed.

Firstly, give the bed a rough rake over, the soil doesn’t need to be too fine, but try and knock down the larger lumps and get the soil reasonably level. Then we need to take out trenches 6''/15cm deep using a string line to keep then straight. We can dig the trenches with a spade, a large draw hoe or a trenching tool like this if available.

I like to add a generous handful of pelleted poultry manure per running 3'/1m, however some prefer to add bulky organic matter such as leaf mould or well- rotted manure to the bottom of the trench. Personally, I like to have my organic matter worked well throughout the soil the previous autumn rather than just at the bottom of the trench.

 

 

 

 

Space the tubers out down the trenches. First earlies can be spaced much closer (12''/30cm) than maincrop (up to 16''/40cm) with second earlies somewhere in between.

 

 

Use a rake or draw hoe to cover the trenches and draw a little soil up into a mound. We will earth these up steadily though the growing season.

 

 

 

If young shoots begin to grow through the mound and a frost is forecast, draw a little more soil over the growth, or cover with horticultural fleece, newspaper or cloches if you have them.