Friday 17 April 2015

Earthing-up potatoes

My First Early potatoes seem to be doing OK, especially the "Annabelle" ones. They had grown several inches tall so last Sunday I decided the time had come to do the first earthing-up. By this I mean packing in some more compost into their containers so that the leaves are nearly buried again.


Earthing-up means that more of the stem of the plant is underground, which normally leads to the production of more roots and therefore more tubers.


This year I am again growing my potatoes in a mixture heavy with composted stable manure, because that's what I used last year and it produced a good crop of very clean potatoes.


I was away from home from Sunday afternoon until Wednesday evening. When I got home I was amazed to see how much the potatoes had grown in the three days I had been away. This is the same pot as the one in my first photo.


They need earthing-up again already!


My other First Early potato variety is "Winston", and the plants seem to be growing much slower than "Annabelle", which is probably a good thing because it means they won't all mature at the same time.

"Winston"

Meanwhile, Second Earlies "Charlotte", in their smart new tubs, are not far behind.


"Charlotte"

5 comments:

  1. I noticed yesterday that my potatoes have just peeked through the soil. You'll be harvesting before me again this year.

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  2. That is a lot of growth for three days. It must be a nice sight to come home to.

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  3. A week of warm sunshine has made a huge difference here too - I have a lovage plant which I need to move but it's grown 8 inches in the past week so I may have to leave that until next year now. I've just finished earthing up my potatoes to the top of the sack today leaving a few leaves still poking out. Can't believe how quickly they've come on!

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  4. I'm eagerly waiting for green shoots to show from my potatoes but they seem to be growing slowly.

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  5. They certainly look very healthy!

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