Page 13 - Simply Vegetables Summer 2023

Coir is totally new to us, so we’ve been seeking advice and views from other growers via social media to work out how it performs. So far, it seems that compared to peat-based composts, we are likely to find that it dries out more quickly, and also that it doesn’t hold on to nutrients that
are added to it. Therefore, we added 8oz of slow-release fertiliser to the 75 litres of
compost in the hope that this will give the potatoes a good start.
We will monitor the plants as they grow to see whether they look happy or not. We can always supplement with some liquid feed as they grow if needs be. On the watering front, we intend to take a “little and often” approach to always try to keep the compost moist. Hopefully that
way we’ve got less chance of the fertiliser leaching out of the pot and going to waste.
We’re planning to grow the potatoes in 30 litre pots, two tubers per pot. We filled the bottom of each pot with a couple of inches of compost and then placed two tubers in with their shoot pointing upwards. We then covered the tubers with a thin layer of compost and will wait for them to start poking through. As they do so, we will continue to top the pots up until they are full.
Mum and Dad started some off a couple of weeks ago, so we’ve also included a couple of photos of how theirs are getting on so far, at slightly different stages of the pot being filled.
Potatoes are not frost hardy, so we will keep the pots in a cold greenhouse for a few weeks until hopefully the last of the frosts have passed. We are due a couple of cold nights the next few nights, so we will cover the pots with fleece to give them a little bit of extra protection.
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