This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Potatoes
John B3
Posts: 2
in Fruit & veg
I have grown potatoes for 3 years and every year they have grown that tall (approx 6 to 7 ft) I have had to stake them to support them. The soil was, 4 to 5 years ago very clay bound but has been treated with everything possible and is now quite reasonably loose and easy to turn over. Beet root, onions and carrots also reached for the sky and like the potatoes did not produce much crop. Anybody got any advice or ideas ? ?
e-mail : [email protected]
0
Posts
Hello John B3
Which way does your veg plot face? How much direct sunlight does it get?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I have a horrid telephone ground cable partially covered with yellow plastic in full view - Can anyone recommend a flowering climber to 'hide' this eyesore?
Hi Pam and welcome
It would be good if you could start a new thread for your query, with a descriptive title, so that people with an interest in this sort of problem will see it - this thread has a title about potatoes and your question may not be spotted.
Click on Forum Topics at the top of the page, then choose an appropriate Topic and click on Start New Thread (or something like that).
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I would also suspect lack of light John, but if it is getting full sun then it's possible your soil has an excess of nitrogen, in which case I suggest buying a soil testing kit to check it. It's a bit harder to remove nitrogen than to add it, but there are two main ways: Either grow some crops which use a lot of nitrogen (eg brassicas, sweetcorn, squash) or mix in some uncomposted material, such as sawdust which will take in nitrogen as it decomposes. As you say your soil is now easy to cultivate, I would go for growing the nitrate-hungry crops for a season.
Will try to use up nitrogen as it was fed with nitrogen year before last so will grow the appropriate crops. Plot faces sth/west but high fence to west and north so gets average sun, if and when there is any !!
Hello , I think bobthegardern is right in buying a soil testing kit , then decided what to grow
Have you a picture of your potatoes , I have never seen potatoes to growth grow so big ?
Have you thought of growing them in pots/bags to improve yield
best of luck