It's a little bit of work but less than mulching by hand. I dig a shallow trench with a potato plow, then put abut 11/2" of well aged compost in the trench and lay the seed on top of that. Then I cover them up with a cultivator. I think they respond well to the slightly more acidic nature of the compost and the compost helps with drainage while also holding moisture in dry spells. I started doing it to optimize my compost use (it takes a lot less) but continued because it worked so well. As an added plus the taters come out of the ground like they've already been washed.
> Mind sharing how you plant and manage your potatoes? > > I've been very disappointed with my crops the past two years. Doing > great on the freedom from bugs and pretty good on the freedom from > blight (last year I mis-identified a fungal attack for sunscald and > lost a whole row of a variety by responding two late. For whatever > reason, an application of equisetum tea brought the others through, > however. > > > Hugh tells me that he doesn't hill any more. He mulches with old hay. > (Anyone got good tips for unrolling big bales??) I've got lots of old > straw, but straw holds so much water, it kind of worries me to have > it around the spuds. I did lose a crop of spuds one year by apply hay > after the tops had come up: they melted away with fungus withing the > week. > > Woody's suggestion of dipping the cut pieces in a slurry of local > clay and BC has worked very well for us. I don't think we ever have a > cutting that doesn't result in a plant. > > A good geek question for me: my Albrecht report suggests two tons of > lime an acres. The area I want to put the spuds in has not been limed > (the pH is 6.8) and I'd like to lime it after I put the spuds in but > most sources say to not lime a spud patch because it leads to scab. > For myself, however, I can easily suspect that my low yields could be > attributed to not enough calcium-based lime in the soils (Ideas?) > > How do you do your spuds? >
