This is my first go at growing potatoes and I was wondering how much dirt over the whole growing period do the potato plants need to produce a sufficient number of tubers under ground! I planted my potatoes on 7th of October (Jersey Benny and Rocket varieties) and as you can imagine the plants have taken off and are rather big now. I have been mounding up the soil as needed and it covers most of the plant with perhaps about 2 inches of stalk exposed plus the leaves on every plant. The rocket variety says it is ready within 60-70 days which is not far away really. Do I need to keep adding more soil beyond this point! Sorry if this seems like a silly question! All responses are welcome! Thank you very much
hairydog2,
Nov 27, 12:08am
Don't cover them completely as the leaves need sunlight. I'll load a pic of mine to give you an idea.
punkinthefirst,
Nov 27, 1:57am
What you are doing is pulling dirt up the side of the stalks to encourage them to make more tubers on the stems (and covering the forming potatoes). So it's up to you, really. Most people keep at it til flowers start to form, then leave them alone to flower and die back. It also keeps the dreaded weeds at bay :-)
kaddiew,
Nov 27, 3:32am
I've just finished my Jerseys, and about 30cms of soil was more than enough mounding. I've never had spuds grow very far up the stalks, no matter how much I cover them. Next lot I've just planted are deeper to start with, in the hopes I won't have to do so much mounding.
gardie,
Nov 27, 5:31am
I no longer mound my potatoes, I just plant them deeply - around 30cm.I find that I get better crops this way.I didn't find that mounding produced more potatoes, in fact I feel that I get better crops this way.I do plant potato fertiliser into the holes.I also found with mounding them, I got the odd green potato where the soil 'fell' off.No more green spuds now, ever.
robke,
Nov 27, 8:46am
We don't mound our potatoes much and still get very good crops, by the way rockets and swifts don't often have flowers, we are eating ours now and they are yum
porcupine_tree,
Nov 27, 9:08am
Wow! So many responses! Thank you everybody very helpful! I am curious to learn learn about the non mounding method it seems like a wonderful idea.The photograph was also very helpful. I appreciate all of your feedback. May we all have successfu potato crops. I do have a question about flowers on potatoes, it was my understanding that the new potato varieties did not need to or rather go to flower before you ate them!
hairydog2,
Nov 28, 2:24am
The potatoes in the pic are Maris Anchors, which I always plant. They do not flower. the ones in the pic would be at the flowering stage, if they flowered.
oh_hunnihunni,
Nov 24, 10:49am
I used to layer pea straw then dirt. It kept the spuds clean and saved a lot of digging. Harvest was easy and the resulting enriched soil was a blessing on the once were spuds patch for the next crop planting.
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