Tag Archives: maris piper

Marching Red Duke of york

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Have removed the fleece from over the potatoes. If it does frost between now and the end of the month, will have to recover. Above is the one mound of red duke of york, These are first earlies, so could be up as early as next month. They have been in for about eight to nine weeks, I think. I had been expected a few more clumps of leafy foliage. I can’t imagine that the other two mounds so expertly sunk by the artist in residence will have failed. He’ll be gutted if they have! We want a success, so A)he comes back again B) he sees that his handiwork paid off. I do want to see the red potatoes come out, they are being played with this year, for the very first time.

The vast majority of the other spuds are up. Am yet to see any Maris Piper though. Lady balfour, international kidney and King Edwards, have certainly sent up green leafy shoots. I can only imagine that the seed potatoes are perhaps struggling to grow through the heavy clay. The very name of international kidney makes me laugh. These were not planted in trenches, but sunk with a bulb planter. So it will be interesting to see how these will progress. 

More aloo sinking: spuds galore

Potato planting

Nearly at the end of the potato planting job. I think I might go slightly loopy if I see any more seed potatoes. That said, there are 20 Maris Piper tubers that remain to be sunk.

There have been two different techniques used to sink the spuds. Firstly, traditional potato trenches dug, seed potatos sunk with mounds built on top. Now, I don’t like digging, and I can’t make the mounds. Second, seed potatoes have been sunk in the same as bulbs would be, with a bulb planter. No mean feat, all in all, with horrible heavy clay that makes both of these techniques incredibly difficult and painful,

I really don’t like digging trenches,

Now, why do i have green grass on the mounds that were actually formed. I’m going to have issues earthing up, that’s why, and I can’t make proper mounds. At least the grass will break down as organic matter, and then hopefully protect the developing halums. Grass has been heaped onto the mounds, and might even help level out the dips and divots too.

Kestrel, king edwards, international kidney, maris piper and red duke of york have now been sunk. I was starting to worry about how much space there was, but it might be okay. At least half the plot, in terms of open ground is concerned with potatoes. This is a sinking of spuds on a grand scale, much bigger volume than I have ever attempted. So this could be a fairly moderate success, or a complete, and abject failure.

Pay the Piper, my lady: Maris Piper and Lady Balfour

 

If there had to be a pretty potato contest, then Maris piper or lady balfour would be worthy contenders. I have arrived at that decision, as the King Eds are ugly in comparison. King Eds look like battle weary cavaliers in comparison to today’s furtled crop. It was definitely a two man job. I started to furtle and pick out; with ma then joining me. Ma has a technique for everything, she furtles; lobs them at me. I then pick them up and stick them in the bucket.

The king eds are drawn gasps and grimaces, these drew ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’. These were potatoes that looked familiar. Like the stuff found in supermarkets. Decent enough sized too. Not many tiny, new potato type tubers; in comparison to the king eds.

All of these were grown in horse poop. But the maris pipers and lady balfour were buried a bit deeper, I think. The king ed bed, whilst it had lots of poop, sank a lot in comparison. Also, lady balfour and maris piper, don’t seem to have had as many chunks taken out of them, compared to the King Eds.

Now all that remains is to eat them!

Yours in anticipation,

Horticultural Hobbit