Preparing for growing potatoes

[sarah scottParticipant]

We’ve got access to a strip of land which probably hasn’t been cultivated for decades. It’s a mass of weeds, mostly nettles. We want to grow potatoes there – leaving more space on our nearby veg patch for salad crops etc. We have plenty of cardboard and compost but I’m not clear how the potatoes would cope if we put down cardboard followed by, say, 10cm of compost. Will the cardboard disintegrate quickly enough for the potato roots to grow through it? How would we ‘earth up’? Also, should we attempt to remove the nettle roots before we start?
Would welcome any guidance.

[HazelkyParticipant]

Hi from Hazel,
Cardboard over nettle roots was fine for me initially. A few popped through but easily dealt with.

An idea for the spuds is to put down a layer of compost, then cardboard, then punch a hole in the cardboard for each potato(easier when thoroughly wet), then cover with more compost. You can earth up each plant separately with more compost as necessary. The cardboard will be very delicate by the time the spuds are ready.

Sure there will be more ideas you can pick from😀

Good luck and fine weather!

[colinParticipant]

Rather than earthing cover in straw.

Also have you checked out Charles video on growing potatoes in compost?

[sarah scottParticipant]

Thank you Hazel. That is really helpful.
I guess the holes in the cardboard would have to be big enough to allow the potato shoots through but not so big that the nettles get through, too?

[sarah scottParticipant]

Thanks, Colin.
Straw sounds good.
No, I haven’t seen the video so will check it out now!

[sarah scottParticipant]

Thanks again, Colin.

I’ve watched the video and am inspired!
After many years of potato growing, I’ll be changing my methods this year.

One other query…does Charles recommend how think the cardboard layer should be? Is a single layer enough?

Many thanks for your help.

[sarah scottParticipant]

Meant to say ‘thick’ not ‘think’!

[colinParticipant]

I do not know what thickness Charles recommends.

When I did this last year I did not have a lot cardboard so just used one layer which worked ok.

I have more this year and finding it helps paths if there is a thicker layer plus using thicker layer on new developing plot.

[Author]

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