Potato prep

Most of the top growers grow their exhibition spuds in peat but because my local DIY and garden centre stores have gone all tree-huggy I couldn't source any peat locally last year. As a result I just used ordinary bagged compost, the cheapest I could find for the purpose. I didn't bother sieving out all the lumps but just put a handful each of Vitax Q4 and calcified seaweed into each bag and that was that. I wasn't holding out much hope of anything decent but the result was without doubt my best ever year for potatoes. They ended up being the easiest to clean I have ever experienced, so I shall be using similar methods this season.....more on this in April.

I never had any blight on my spuds at all last year so I have no qualms about re-using the same compost, albeit I have been sieving out the lumps over the winter. When I harvested them in early August all the spent compost was emptied out into an old bulk bag in my garage like the ones you get sand and gravel delivered from the builders' merchants.














During the last couple of months, every time I have had to go down to the garage at the bottom of my garden for anything I have made sure I've taken time out to sieve a couple of bucket loads in my Smithyveg unpatented sieving machine.

The box with the wheels has a piece of metal mesh with 6mm dia. holes at the bottom and by pushing and pulling it back and forth over the wooden frame the finer compost falls through the holes and into a compost bag, leaving all the dross behind. It's also important to do this on second hand compost to get out all the tiny 'volounteer' spuds left over from last season. You never get them all out when you're harvesting.This contraption really does make light work of the task and also keeps your wanking hand match fit.

Gradually I have got down the huge pile but I still have over half the bag to do so I need to get a shift on, but I am left with several bags of very fine compost that has all passed through the 1/4" sieve. The finer the mix then in theory the better shape your spuds will be.

I shall still buy in a few bags as I reckon at least one third of every bag of compost is lumps, bumps, sticks and all manner of other flotsam the manufacturers can get away with, so I shall end up with a third less bulk than I had last year. Try it yourselves....you'll be amazed at what you get.