Page 17 - Simply Vegetables Autumn 2021

Encouraging the roots to grow out of the bag
Seeing the roots growth into the soil below
A full cover crop will need 1” a week, that’s about 1 gallon for each bag, in at least two generous doses.
As an insurance, in a dry spell, I am usually more liberal with my watering, making certain of full growth and a fall in the chance of getting scab on the skins. Good drainage from bags takes away any excess watering.
Disappointingly I found one bag had dried out, this year. It was brought to the attention of the resident allotment ants before I was even consulted! Since emptying the problem bag,
the contents of the ant nest have continued to nourish the plumpest family of robins in the district.
Addendum 22nd July 2021.
An additional 25% for free!!
Don’t tell anyone!! On harvesting my potatoes for exhibition. I noticed that the bags which happily grew their roots deep into the soil below, gave 25% more yield, an extra 25% more potatoes and a promise of 25% more potatoes of exhibition size!
Concluding, I am sure that the adjusted plan for next year will save time and keep down the costs of growing. We will see at showing time.
Should you spray your potatoes with foliar
nutrients to improve potato yield and quality
for exhibition?
May I suggest that you continue
to be happy in using the well
and successfully recommended fertilizer formula, 13-13-20 NPK. Especially now that it has been improved with special slow-release nutrients, maintaining plant and root growth during the summer. Also, it is pretty useful as a top dressing if you think it necessary.
This year I had not anticipated the spraying of any of my plants, every Friday, with a liquid fertilizer. After being advised that foliar nitrogen and trace elements extend the green canopy duration, I gave
it a go!
I will probably never know
if the spraying has produced larger tubers, but there is no doubt that the leaves of my plants are maintaining their healthy green appearance. Improving and extending them to more continuous growth, hopefully giving an increase in tuber size in this year’s short season.
As a background, commercial companies gain considerable benefit by the application of the trace elements which produce
a harder skin, enabling them
to improve the handling and distribution qualities of the varieties they grow. Hopefully, this benefit will show a similar improvement in skin quality for me, in producing a covering which will be more manageable and hard wearing, as I prepare them for exhibition.
Here, in this short summary, I am writing about the following foliar nutrients which are not always highlighted:
• Calcium, [in the form of Calcium Nitrate. Not lime] is a vital nutrient for potatoes.
It is required in the crop
for the maintenance of cell walls, healthy leaf and tuber development and is found particularly the skin, ensuring strength a good finish.
• Boron, amongst its many other attributes, helps increase calcium uptake.
• Magnesium and Potassium
which are always needed during
the tuber bulking stage.
All this; and before I consider the control of insect pests and diseases!
Will I ever develop a magic plan? Let me know.
Simply Vegetables 17