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Hi all

Starting to put maincrop in now, and, wondered if it would be possible, after digging the trenches, to just put the upturned sods in the trench on top of the taters?

In order to save myself a bit of digging? The allotment is in its first year so V-weedy

Would appreciate any input

Starting to put maincrop in now, and, wondered if it would be possible, after digging the trenches, to just put the upturned sods in the trench on top of the taters?

You can, but you run the risk of rot if the grass layer is too close to the tubers. It's far better to dig your trench 2 spades deep (Double dig) and lay the sods top down in the bottom of the trench with about 3" of soil on top of them. Save the rest of the soil for earthing up.

Hmmm - I seem to remember an old Irish trick (lazy beds? or something like that) whereby the tubers were simply laid on the turf and then the surrounding turf was cut to form flaps and simply folded over the tubers.

Yep - just Googled it. Lazy beds it is. Still used in the Hebrides, apparently.

Mind you, Ireland did get struck heavily by blight.

Mike

I've done lazy beds, sheet mulch, and 'doing it properly' as advised by Davie there. Davie's method works the best by far. Lazy beds relies on the spuds outperforming the grass, which works better the further north you are as the spud's energy store is more of a relative advantage. Sheet mulching is another way of laying the spuds on the surface but uses mulch to suppress the grass: probably the best of both worlds as far as you're concerned. If you can't find how to do it easily, pm me.

One of my neighbours has been growing spuds just in grass clippings for the last couple of years!

We have quite a lot of communal grassy areas and she's been blagging all the clippings from that. She just lays the seed potatoes on sheets of cardboard, covers with clippings and adds a load more once a week or so as the grass gets cut. She's had some amazing spuds from it and the ground underneath has had weed suppressant on it for a year - so she's improving some horrendously weedy land as well.

Seems like a really nifty idea - although I have some reservations about nutrient deficiencies. I find it hard to believe that grass can provide all that's needed (unless it comes via a cow of course )

Thankyou all.

I still have plenty left, so, I think I will try all of the above methods!

First year is our experimental year.