Earth Up Potatoes
Earthing up Make Chicken and Cheddar Stuffed Potatoes is an important part of the growing process. It involves drawing mounds of soil up around the plant to prevent new tubers from growing and turning green and poisonous. Also many times more potatoes will form from the buried stems. It also helps to prevent blight infection. This article demonstrates how to earth potatoes.
Steps
- Earth up the potatoes at the right time. Do it before the tubers turn green, because once they have turned green, they become poisonous and inedible. Begin earthing up once the shoots of your plant reached approximately 20 cm (8 inches).
- Using your hoe, draw the gathered soil into mounds around the stems of your potato plants. Use enough soil so that just 5cm (2 inches) of stem are left visible above the mound. This will ensure enough foliage is left to allow the plant to carry on growing strongly, but will starve the developing tubers of light so that they are prevented from turning green and poisonous. Whilst doing this, take the opportunity to remove any weeds or debris that have returned since planting.
- Maintain the mounds. Keep an eye on your potatoes over the coming weeks in case the earth has been washed away by heavy rain. To avoid this occurring, do not make the mounds too steep. As the plant continues to grow, repeat the process every time it reaches 10-15cm (4-6 inches) of new growth above ground. This could mean repeating the process 3 or 4 times per season.
Tips
- One technique is to grow potatoes in something that can be stacked, such as tires or wooden frames stacked over stakes or posts. When it's time to earth up, stack another layer on and pile on another layer of soil or compost.
- Keep a gardening calendar to help remind you when the process is due for repeating. Such a calendar can mark all the necessary garden jobs to make it easier for you to remember when regular garden maintenance is due.
Things You'll Need
- Garden hoe
- Potato patch
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