There's a lot of talk about sieving your peat mix, adding so many ounces of this, that and the other to the bale but I remember two seasons ago having my best ever spuds when I didn't sieve or shred a single spade load. So I am doing no more than putting an ample handful each of Vitax Q4 and calcified seaweed into the bottom two inches of peat in the bags and planting my seed spud into this. I no longer have the time to be more scientific than that. More peat will be put on top of the seed spud and that's that. They'll be planted out in trenches next week (for now they're in the garage) to keep them firm and once the foliage breaks the surface I'll top up the bags to the rim.
The Casablanca I set in buckets several weeks ago for a July show are now a good foot high and very lush looking.
This should be when the tubers are setting down below and is the point you have to make sure they never dry out or else scab can take hold. Hopefully, we'll be seeing more of this variety this coming season instead of Winston that has ruled the roost in the white classes for many years. I'm hoping it'll be easier to find a matching set as I do find Winston to be quite variable in its size, shape and form. If it doesn't I guess 'we'll always have Maris' !
6 comments:
I spent nearly a whole day sieving 800 litres of peat. What a pain in the arse. I'll be interested to see how your unsieved pots turn out Simon.
Thanks for the tip about rubbing off the surplus buds, I'd begun to think it didn't make any difference so now I'm looking foward to big bakers next year.
p.s. Best pun award!
Marcus....i'm not saying don't do it....Sherie's results are there for all to see. I just don't have the time this season so i'll take a punt and not bother. It worked for me two years ago. I'm not growing so many spuds this year so as long as I can find a set of four for the Millennium collections at Llangollen and Malvern i'll be happy.
Out of interest Simon, how many bags of each variety do you plant in order to be reasonably sure you can produce a good matching set? I ask because I have planted about 5 planter bags of Kestrel, each containing 3 tubers, and I have planted 8 bags of Blue Belle also with 3 tubers in each.
As an experiment I have also tried the variety Vales Emerald, but only two bags, one with 3 tubers in and one with 2.
I didn't sieve my compost either, and I added the Vitax Q4, but not the calcified seaweed. Do you think I could still add the seaweed now as the potatoes are not earthed up yet, so could I sprinkle it over the compost that is currently covering them?
Thanks
Misty....the answer is that the more you grow the more chance you have of making a matching set. I'll probably be growing a dozen bags each of Casablanca, Kestrel, NVS Sherine and NVS Amour. Far too few to compete at top level but more than enough for village level.
As for the calcified seaweed I wouldn't bother adding it now. I'm not convinced it does anything anyway and indeed it shouldn't really work for spuds. It takes a long time for it to work through the soil etc and the spuds have grown been harvested long before it can be of any significant use. However, because a certain lady grower swears by it we all seem blinded to its properties. I think the secret to her success is probably her location and the quality of water in her taps!
You could give a liquid feed with Maxicrop once a fortnight and top dress with calcium nitrate at tuber initiation, when the foliage is about a foot high. A couple of weeks before lifting stop watering so the spuds are hopefully dry when you extract them.
Thanks for that advice Simon, not sure if we can get 'Maxicrop' over here, but I shall check out B&Q and the local garden centres. As for the Calcium Nitrate I need to find out what to look for to track some down, i.e. will it simply be labelled Calcium Nitrate on the box, or will it have some fancy name?
Sounds like I didn't plant enough bags of spuds, so I shall just have to keep my fingers crossed. Still got to put the Winston in yet, so may do more bags of them just in case. I gave away too many to my Step Dad of the other varieties.
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