Potatoes & Artichokes
Posted on May 23, 2008 under Diary | 1 CommentGrowing potatoes is definitely not a difficult task. They don’t need much water and are apparently happy with most soil types. We planted our first batch of chitting seed potatoes on the 16th of April (around 15 of them) and Helena planted the second batch just last week.
The first batch has made tremendous progress in a month. The shoots are nearly 10 cms tall and they all look healthy (until the frosts at least).
We read up that in order to get a good crop and to prevent the yield from turning green, its necessary to build up soil around the base of the plants. This part confuses me a little. The shoots are covered with leaves completely and quite close to the ground. So, I am thinking that the built up soil may bury the leaves and decrease the growth rate!
Anyway, we wanted to build up the base yesterday but Helena’s allotment guide book suggested that we wait until the shoots are 30 cms tall. I reckon this may just be a couple of weeks away. So, I just dug up the soil around the plants and prepared ourselves.
Further reading suggests that we should build up quite a few times during the plant’s life cycle. This article has a very nice illustration. We may start with a little bit of building up later today.
Meanwhile the artichokes are doing very well. I read up yesterday that Jerusalem Artichokes can grow up to 3 mts! Ummm…. We may have planted these too close to one another.
June 18th, 2008 at 10:32 am
I hope this helps, as it is about all I know on spuds.
My mother used to grow ‘em during the war in old zinc buckets. A couple of inches of soil, then the tuber, then she filled the bucket to half full. When the tops of the plant grew above the bucket, she filled the container with soil. Other than that it was just about adding water. Each seed spud gave her about 3 to 5lb of potatoes.
I know that if the growing potatoes are exposed to light then they become inedible. And you can easily over water them.
Good luck!