Spuddies; There must be thousands of books written and a gazillion of web pages devoted to the growing of spuddies so I'm not going to waste your or my time by reinventing the wheel again.I will however stick to the basics just in case.
Ruby Lou is the name of the variety I'm growing. I grew these last year and found them a good all round potato so in they go again.
- Soil prep; I'm working on a previously dug bed so a straight forward turning over to the full depth of the digging fork tines is in order and then a trench about 100mm deep.
- Place the spuddies about 25cm apart with the rows 75cm apart.
- Back fill with compost and cover with the soil you dug out for the trench.
- I didn't water in this case due to the soil being very moist and rain forecast for the next day (which did arrive, 36mm)
- I also didn't mulch for the same reason as above. When things dry out a bit I have some, by now, very soggy wheat straw that I'll use to mulch the rows.
- You can hill up around your spuddies, usually twice. The first time is when the plants make about 30 or so cm's and the second time is just before flowering.
- I'll also be spreading some sulfate of potash around just as they start to break the soil and again at flowering time.
Note; At 0:29 on the video. Notice how I gently place the bucket down after use, very important this.
Cheers and happy spudding
Stewart
