How deep for potatoes.

[grannyjanny]

We have swift, duke of York (red & white),Winston & Vivaldi.In your veg course book you say to plant 2″ deep & in the organic book 4″ deep with 2-4″ manure/compost on top. We are in Cheshire, OH strimmed about 20×18′ of the new plot we then put thick layer of cardboard & a 5″ layer of manure on top of that. We went up yesterday & lots of ground elder had emerged through it. We wondered if that bed would be OK for
the potatoes, just planting through the manure but how deep? We are going to plant & fleece so we can get on with the rest of the new plot but feel we need to dig out as much as we can of the ground elder.

[charles]

 I had not noticed the difference in my books, the 2" planting depth is when there is more organic matter. You need enough that the growing potatoes can be "Earthed up" with compost. In your case they would be fine just nestled into the surface , hardly buried or not at all, with 5" of manure above. If you had enough card I would simply lay that on top of the decaying cardboard which is allowing ground elder through, then plant potatoes through holes cut in the card, trowel width, then pull any ground elder which appears through the planting holes. Once potatoes get going, the weeds will be diminishing and then mostly smothered, final clearing abw at harvest time.

[grannyjanny]

Thank you Charles. We can get on with the planting. The ground elder has come through the cardboard & the 5″ of manure. Our concern is we have an elderly neighbour & need to prevent it getting to her plot, it is very close to the boundary. There’s a blackcurrant & red currant on our side of the boundary. Is it too late to move then to the fruit bed without loosing the crop?

[charles]

 Moving fruit bushes at this stage will compromise the crop but it may be worth it.  Transplant with plenty of root, prune out a few branches, water well – its possible and worth it for solving a ground elder problem.

[grannyjanny]

Thank you Charles.

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