Potato Experiment

Planted 2 similar sized Pink Fir Apple tubers, one of them was just earthed up as usual, the other Earthed up to the max.





Harvested them today and here's the results



About the same yield, but the quality of the earthed up ones is much better, lost a fair few of the others due to the light getting to them, didn't loose any of the earthed up ones to that

 

@Zigs Looks like some cracking size PFAs there, mine were smaller as I waited until they were refuced to £1 for a big bag, but they formed all the way up 42L potato bags to just under the soil surface, which caused me to lose a few green ones.

Might be interesting to try a similar test creating a stack of extension tubes within a polytunnel to get an extended growing season/help protect against blight?

How much do the biggest tubers weigh?

 

A long, long time ago my dad use to dig rows of ridges about 2ft high to plant his potatoes in and I always wondered why.

Later I found out that the valleys inbetween the ridges served as drainage and irrigation channels. It also meant that earthing-up as the plants grew wasn't necessary, and that weeding was minimal.

When your source of food is dependent on what you grow then you have to make sure that you get maximum yield for minimal effort.

OP, try planting in ridges next year and see how it compares.

 

it's rather difficult, if not impossible to grow (and keep watered) spuds grown in 500/600mm (or more?) high ridges.

 

If grown directly in the ground in UK conditions then it probably won't need watering - well, maybe once at the beginning to settle the seed potatoes in if you're paranoid.

My old man learned this technique from his old man (although, he never used it for potatoes himself). It's a technique passed down through generations in the far east so I know it works well.