Page 16 - ALG Issue 2 2017

Feature on... Potatoes
Looking after your potatoes – Part 2
By this stage in the year all your potatoes will be in the ground and you will have started to earth up around the growing shoots.
Ridging up
As the haulms grow they are usually earthed up (ridged) to keep the developing tubers covered with soil which prevents them turning green and becoming un t to use. It also enables the plants to form tubers that grow from the stem. The ridging provides the tubers with the free drainage, warmth and soil aeration required to develop strong, healthy growth.
The rst earthing up takes place when the haulm growth is 20cms (8”) high. Carefully throw the soil over the haulm, covering them with about 15cms (6”) of loose soil and leaving 5cms (2”) of the haulm above the soil. You can use a spade or a draw hoe for this job but try to create a at topped ridge rather than a pointed one. A second ridging can take place when the haulm has grown another 20cms (8”). A top dressing of a general fertiliser can be applied along the line of plants before each ridging is carried out.
Don’t allow the soil to dry out. Potatoes
require at least 25cms (1”) or water
per week from owering time to keep
them moist and to swell the tubers. They also respond well to a foliar feed with tomato fertiliser.
Harvesting
The early potatoes are usually ready to lift when the owers are fully open, which is about 10 weeks after planting. Have an exploratory poke around in the ridge to check on the condition of the potatoes. If they are a satisfactory size you can begin to dig them up. Early potatoes have the traditional ‘new’ potatoes avour and you only need to lift as many haulms as you require at any one time. When they are rst lifted, the potato skins will be loose but the later crops will have rmer skins. Early and second early potatoes don’t store well as they are intended for immediate use.
In the wetter parts of the UK it is safer to lift all of the potato crop by the end
of September before the colder, wetter October weather kicks in.
Storage
Potatoes intended for storing must be dry
and free from disease or any physical damage. Choose a dry day to carry out the lifting. This allows you to leave the tubers on the surface of the soil so the skins can dry off and harden. Set the damaged tubers to one side to use rst.
Never store potatoes in plastic bags.
This will make them sweat, causing them
to rot. There isn’t a worse job than dealing with rotten potatoes! Use the brown paper, double skinned potato sacks that you can buy or try scrounging them from a market stall for storage. Store the sacks somewhere dry and frost-free and inspect the sacks
and their contents regularly for pests and diseases. Remove any suspect tubers as soon as you discover them. Towards the end of the storage period you will have to check more frequently as the tubers will be coming to the end of their storage life.
Mike Thurlow
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