Topic: Preparing for spuds

[caroline7758]

I have a patch of my allotment which I've just de-weeded and dug over for the first time. I'm planning to use it for potatoes, but obviously it hasn't had any organice material added for a few years. All I've got to add is pelleted chicken manure and blood, fish & bone. Should I add either of these before planting or just plant and hope for the best?

[kenkew]

If it hasn't had anything growing on it for some time, just plant. You'll get a good crop. Forget the pellets. Have a read at crop rotation for next year.

[Vortex]

It won't do any harm to add either.
If you're planting using a bulb planter then you can add a few pellets to the hole before inserting the potato.
If you can get hold of reasonably well rotted manure and don't mind a little extra work you can plant using the trench method.
Trench method - dig a trench 10" deep and the width of a spade. To the bottom of the trench add 3-4" manure. cover the manure with 4 sheets of newspaper. Water well.  Place the seed potatoes in the trench at the appropriate spacing. Cover.
I use this method on my home plot as the soil is very light and lacks humus - now matter how much manure I add. Even planting this way by the time I lift my earlies you can barely tell that I added manure in the first place.

[artichoke]

I don't understand advice to put pellets, manure etc underneath the seed potatoes. All potato shoots and their roots grow upwards, don't they? As far as I understand it, the seed potato sits on the bottom, sending up shoots, and has no way of reaching anything underneath it, unless worms bring it up?

With that in mind, I enrich the soil above the seed potato, to encourage the shoots as they make their way to the surface, sending out roots and developing new potatoes.

[Vortex]

Potatoes will put down roots like any other plant  looking for both a supply of moisture and a supply of nutrients. The shoots that grow naturally on a potato  are the leaf shoots and can only be sustained for as long as the seed potato's supply of nutrients and moisture lasts.
When you plant potatoes in the ground not only do they throw leaf shoots, which develop roots at leaf nodes on which tubers form, but they also develop feeding roots. The greater the availability of nutrients and moisture  the stronger the plant and the better the resultant array of tubers.
Putting manure/pellets under the seed potato provides it with a healthy  supply of nutrients, and in the case of the trench manure/paper a reservoir of moisture.

[JimmyJames]

I think I will go for the trench method, but have a question about the newspaper...  Does it matter if the newspaper has coloured print on it?  I have read somewhere that black and white is best, but this is quite hard to find in the newspapers I have access to.  Same question goes for newspaper pots I guess?

[allaboutliverpool]

It was noted that the organic material disappears anyway. That is because it id distributed in the soil by earthworms which carry it up down and sideways. That is why if you have no compost now, you can add it as a mulch later

Potatoes are easy to grow and that is why the following year they come up amongst the following crop. I once had a disaster with parsnips which were sown after potatoes. The seeds failed to germinate, but I has a good crop of spuds which had grown from grape sized tubers!

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments_Vegetables_potatoes.html

[beckydore]

How much soil do you put on top of the potatoes when you first put them in??

[littlebabybird]

is the newspaper essential?

[caroline7758]

I'm a bit nervous about putting stuff under the potatoes, because last year I put some spent hops and shredded paper underneath and didn't get a very good crop- wondered if the hops had burnt the tubers. Probably should have put more soil on top before putting the spuds in.

[star]

Not too sure if the hops interfered with your crop Caroline, last year was a dreadful crop for me (before blight struck) compared to the year before.

It was very hot and dry in April then very wet and not that hot for the rest of the summer, could be just a coincidence. I just know someone will have the right answer soon though ;)

[Vortex]

I suspect the spent hops pulled all the nitrogen out of the soil as they decomposed.

As to newspaper - yes it is necessary unless your manure is very well rotted. It serves as protection and stops the seed tubers getting burnt, whilst allowing them to the nutrient resource.

I try and avoid using high gloss colour newspaper, and generally use our local free papers.

I ended up watering my potatoes in April due to the dry weather, even the ones in my raised beds which are on clay.

[kenkew]

I think I will go for the trench method, but have a question about the newspaper...  Does it matter if the newspaper has coloured print on it?  I have read somewhere that black and white is best, but this is quite hard to find in the newspapers I have access to.  Same question goes for newspaper pots I guess?

If you really want to use it.....(?)....don't use glossy mag stuff.

[kenkew]

is the newspaper essential?

NO!

[kenkew]

Tubers on top of manure is OK!

[Tatiana]

I'm confused! I understand the trench method is best but would it be ok to use manure as a mulch after the spuds have been planted as long as it's not right over where the shoots will come out? Only asking because I won't have anymore manure until after I plant my spuds  ::) and my soil is pretty poor (will be better organised next year!)

[manicscousers]

have you any comfrey, tatiana, that's good to put in with the spuds, or chicken manure pellets, quick fix until you get the manure  :)

[kenkew]

I'm confused! I understand the trench method is best but would it be ok to use manure as a mulch after the spuds have been planted as long as it's not right over where the shoots will come out? Only asking because I won't have anymore manure until after I plant my spuds  ::) and my soil is pretty poor (will be better organised next year!)

Don't waste your manure on the surface. It won't help your spuds. Just pull the earth over the leaf as it shows. Bury the leaf...totally.

[Tatiana]

Hi manics!  :) No comfrey yet but will try chicken manure pellets. Thanks for the tip!

Thanks kenkew. Reading the other thread, I'll probably use grass clippings as a mulch later then and use the manure for my courgettes and toms!

[kenkew]

If you're trenching, soil is better than grass. The idea is to exclude light (and frost) to encourage the tuber to grow bigger to provide energy. (And bigger spuds.)