Potato Planter

[okra]

Can anyone recommend a potato planting tool. I have seen various long handled bulb planters for sale but are they suitable for spuds? Or alternatively does anybody use a hand held bulb planter for the job? Most of these bulb planters only seem to go to a 4 inch depth.

[okra]

[plotstoeat]

Never heard of such a thing. Most people use a trowel or a hoe. Is your soil solid clay?

[okra]

Never heard of such a thing. Most people use a trowel or a hoe. Is your soil solid clay?

No it just makes the job easier.

[goodlife]

I've heard bulb planters used for spuds and then the soil is been earthed slightly and/or mulched to give depth above the tubers...to keep the light off.
I have several bulb planters but I've never tempted to do potatoes with them, because the shallowness of the depth that is achieved..I find I can achieve same result and with much less hassle with just ordinary trowel or small spade.
I like to place my spud into ground and not just drop it...even with long stemmed bulb planter I would still end up bending down to put the potato into ground.
Hmm....something is just tickling my memory...I've seen some tool somewhere for spud planting..like a bulb planter type of thing. Let me do a bit of 'rummaging'  and I'll be back...

[goodlife]

I can't recommend either of these for not had chance/need to try one...but what you asked are around...

http://www.grovesnurseries.co.uk/products/potato-planter-tool-11229.aspx#.VLwYA1VybDc
http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/sneeboer-potato-planter-pid7702.html

...or, how about one of these..http://labs.russell.wisc.edu/organic-seed-potato/2013/06/07/john-henry-meets-the-potato-planter/

[BarriedaleNick]

I'e got one of those - like the one from Grove Nurseries except mine is about 100 years old!  It would be great if I wasn't on solid clay.  If you have a good depth of soil they work really well..

[pumkinlover]

I use a long handled bulb planter. It is a Joseph Bentley one that was the most sturdy one when I was looking.
A few years ago I stopped digging out the trenches and filling with manure due to back issues. It works but I have not had as good a crop since then. However the weather has been less favourable.

[okra]

Thank you all for the advice and links

[kGarden]

I've got a De Wit long handled bulb planter, which I thought would be amazing but in practice I don't use it. It can be used like a post-hole spade, gathering some oil in the hole which is then removed, so I suppose it might be handy on soil that colapses easily, like sand



I also have a Bulldog one, which is built like a brick-outhouse!, and I use that all the time - I plant everything that I raise in 9cm pots (most veg, all ornamentals) using it - stamp on it to make a series of planting holes, the cores drop out next to the holes, pot a plant in and backfill as necessary. (I usually pre-water the holes too so that the soil under the plant is moist and encourages new roots downwards)

I have also used it for spuds, but I tend to dig a trench and muck the bottom. I bought it in a car boot and if the kids look after it I expect it will see their children out!!

[laurieuk]

I have always planted my potatoes with a spade but different to most. I work the soil digging in compost/manure mixing well as I go. The soil is left level, I then using a line push my spade in close to the line and pull forward, this enables me to put the seed potato in the soil behind the spade. I then lift the spade out and level the soil. I do this for the complete row. When I finish the soil is as level when I finish as it was when I started . This leaves with plenty of soil to earth up when the potatoes show above ground. I started doing this when we had a garden with very shallow soil and I grew the potatoes flat but I have carried on since ten.  When I give talks about veg. growing I know several others have tried with success. Why take a complete drill out when you only want to plant at intervals and the potatoes most times grow out of the side  if you  earth up when you plant.

[okra]

I have always planted my potatoes with a spade but different to most. I work the soil digging in compost/manure mixing well as I go. The soil is left level, I then using a line push my spade in close to the line and pull forward, this enables me to put the seed potato in the soil behind the spade. I then lift the spade out and level the soil. I do this for the complete row. When I finish the soil is as level when I finish as it was when I started . This leaves with plenty of soil to earth up when the potatoes show above ground. I started doing this when we had a garden with very shallow soil and I grew the potatoes flat but I have carried on since ten.  When I give talks about veg. growing I know several others have tried with success. Why take a complete drill out when you only want to plant at intervals and the potatoes most times grow out of the side  if you  earth up when you plant.

Great idea laurieuk - I have already dug and manured the potato area - so I might give up on the idea of a planter and try the method this year

[kGarden]

Spade in and lever a wedge-hole sounds the same to me as bulb-planter in and make a hole.  One less tool to have to buy, store and cart to the plot!

[MervF]

I bought my potato planter from Groves Nurseries at Bridport.   I watched the video - http://www.grovesnurseries.co.uk/guides/gardenvideoguides.aspx#.VL1tQGNyaUk and went down and picked mine up as they are only about an hour's drive.   I have used it for the past couple of seasons and it works very well - saves a lot of bending.   The tool is well made and excellent quality.

[jimc]

I go the other way with mine Merv. My current potato patch is on solid gravel so the soil gets built up around the spud. Just harvesting my 5th crop in 3 years from the same patch and starting to plant again for a winter harvest.
Initially I laid out biscuits of hay in rows with the planting gap in between. The seed spud sat on the gravel, I covered it with a 6 inch plant pot of good loam, the same again with compost. then spread aged chook manure along the row. The same was done in the second year but last year with hay prices going through the roof due to drought conditions I started to mow a vacant block collecting the mulch from behind the mower and using that. Each crop has been fantastic with some of the summer crops being a challenge with heatwaves.
The soil is now some 60-70mm deep.

[Tee Gee]

I'm a bulb planter man myself unless I don't get my muck dug in before the end of the year.

This is my trusty steed;



If I have to muck then as I dig the trench and add the muck and throw the potatoes at the same time, and leave the muck flat!

Tops emerged but not quite ready for earthing up, although in this case I did



Earthing up Complete



I don't earth up till the tops are 6"-8"high then I more or less bury them.

At least this way I get the tops coming through the top of the heap rather than the side as always seems to happen if you form the ridges prior to the tops emerging!

[Robert_Brenchley]

I plant mine on the level, using a trowel. I've tried planters, and haven't been impressed.

[kGarden]

I'm a bulb planter man myself unless I don't get my muck dug in before the end of the year.

This is my trusty steed;

I tried one like that, but it buckled on my heavy soil on its first outing :(  I also have some arthritis in my hands which means my wrists ache if I use a trowel/similar for long, hence I prefer my leap-on pogo-stick bulb planter :)