Selfsufficientish.com

All-Ireland? Is that summat to do with GAA then?
I'm a londoner really - been here 2 & 1/2 yrs & STILL know nothing about hurling, camogie, Irish football... etc etc!
Mind, I know nothing about cricket either, so I guess sport in my little world is the sport of growing stuff
Ooo... apart from the F1, that is (sorry! VERY un-Ish, I know, but I just love F1 )

Please may I ask a question??

I'm growing First Earlies in potato sacks at home. The advice about earthing-up seems very contradictory, depending what you read.

Should I keep chucking compost in the sacks once I can see leaves poking through, or should I leave them until the foliage is around 1 foot high, as I have read in several books? FTR, I have three seed potatoes in each sack and they've been in about 3 weeks and are currently going mental. I HAVE been covering the leaves with compost, but that has been more about additional protection against any unexpected frosts as anything else. Should I leave them, or carry on covering them?

citizentwiglet wrote:Should I leave them, or carry on covering them?

I'd leave them to grow to about 10 inches then earth-up half way and so on, every time they get to 10 inches or so.

If you bury them then the plants will concentrate their energies in pushing up through the soil and not as much as they should on producing tubers.

They will eventually stop growing up but you don't want trees, you just want potatoes.

I also nip off the flowers, which are trying to grow real seeds. Keep the plant concentrated on growing tubers.

JayBee wrote: I also nip off the flowers, which are trying to grow real seeds. Keep the plant concentrated on growing tubers.

I never thought about that, maybe I'll try that this year.....

Great, thank you very much for the clarification.

I have some potatoes and sweet potatoes (yams?) that I forgot about (in a bottom shelf of cupboard which I couldn't bend down to see after my neck surgery)...they've all started to sprout! Now, do I 'plant' the whole thing, or cut the thing up so that each 'eye' is able to grow on it's own?

If I use a container, such as the bag idea, how many 'eyes' or full potatoes should I plant?

I read a really good article about building a box frame that the front 'wall' is added board by board as the plants grow and you add dirt/compost/mulch...then you just pull off the front boards, lay down a tarp and pull all the dirt and plants out to harvest. They said it helps to not cut or bruise the taters. Then, use the dirt in your compost to wait for another season *not sure why, but they said not to reuse it right away*.

Like I said in my intro, farmer's daughter with a serious 'brown thumb'!

Saxon wrote: Then, use the dirt in your compost to wait for another season *not sure why, but they said not to reuse it right away*.

That's to stop diseases in the soil, if you use the same patch/soil year after year blight and other nasties can build up.

As far as I know it's down to personal choice whether you cut them up, plant them whole, or rub off all but one or two shoots on each potato. Maybe others have better advice on that one...

I'd want two or three eyes on each piece of potato. If you have a potato with loads then chop it up.

A plant will grow off a sliver of potato. I used to compost potato peelings and in the spring my compost heap would have potato plants growing in it. I'd have to dig them up and transplant them to the potato patch!

Now, I don't peel potatoes and eat them with the skins.

Saxon, from what I understand, the general rule of thumb for growing in bags (the normal size potato bags, I'm not sure what the volume is) is 3 seed potatoes (or bits of potato) per bag, although a lot of purists only put one in. I have three each in four bags and they seem to be doing OK at the moment. Of course, only time will tell!

I did read that some folk say you should rub off all but three shoots from each seed potato to get a bigger crop, but there hasn't been any definitive research into this, as far as I know. So I have undertaken a wee experiment, I shall let you know if I get a bigger crop in bags 3 and 4, which had the sprouts rubbed off bar three, or bags 1 and 2, that were just planted as they were.

Thanks to all who replied!

I should have known about the soil thing, I can remember how my dad used to 'rotate' our crops on our 40 acres when I was a kid. Makes sense.

I'm going to try a technique I found on a youtube vid, making my own 'potatoe sacks' from garden fabric, and I figure the 3 pieces per sack rule would be right *from what I saw on the vids*. I also plan on putting the sacks in a section of 'flower bed' that my husband hates because he has to 'weed eat' it all the time. It's right next to little 'garage-turned-apartment' out back, and he doesn't want the area too wet for fear of damage to the old structure. It was originally a 'carriage house' back when the place was built....no real foundation, just the concrete slab that they laid down years ago! Now I can put the 'sacks' in that space and the fabric loaded with soil/crops will kill the grass/weeds that want to sprout there. *we actually had grass growing up through the floor of the bathroom!*. When he gets the chance, we're going to pour cement on that side of the building.

Now I just have to commandeer my daughter and her truck to take me to the County Yard to get some of the free compost! *hubby doesn't want to start our own compost pile*

Again, thanks all...looking forward to trying all this new info out. All it should cost me is the price of the 'fabric' and time! *plus it satisfies my sewing addiction to make my own sacks!* heh.

Suzi