Sarpo Mira potatoes in raised beds

[William J Roberts]

Hi Charles
I have a small allotment where I am trying the no dig way, I also have 3 10 x 4.6 foot raised beds at home, I had a bag of Sarpo Mira seed potato left, I covered 1 bed with manure put the potatoes in a small hole covered the bed with opened out peat compost bags pegged down with slits in for the leaves to come through, apart from a few potatoes with slug damage I got a fantastic crop of clean potatoes. After clearing the bed I noticed some of the manure was covered with a grey woolly type of fungus have you any idea what it is
yours
Bill

[charles]

 Hello Bill, great that your potatoes grew so well, it always impresses me how cleanly they come out of compost and manure. The mould sounds like fungi of some kind. Healthy soil has loads of different fungal spores and threads, all part of the decomposing and growing process, I would be happy to see them. Many of my beds currently have different kinds of mushrooms growing amongst the vegetables, I need to discover if any are edible! Also I see a lot of white patches of fungi.

[William J Roberts]

Hi Charles
It did seem thread like and as I have not had it before i incorporated the cow manure onto the raised bed I assumed it was from that, I feel easier now, thanks for the reply
Bill

[davidshaw2009]

Hi Bill,

I agree that the mould is likely to be harmless and related to the organic matter in the soil. I wonder if the bags (presumably polythene) were necessary? You know how vigorous the Sarpo Mira is and it does a very good job of covering the ground and preventing weeds without a plastic mulch. I always make sure seed is chitted for an early takeoff to prevent weeds getting the upper hand. Plastic mulch may prevent water loss but does attract snails and slugs.
Were you able to weigh the harvest from your plot? There is quite a competition on twitter at the moment re the yield from Sarpo Mira eg 62kg from 2.5kg of seed! see @SarpoUK

David

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