Bob Hobden wrote:



"John Price" wrote
Still very new to this - have just finished double digging a strip of
ground, 5metres by 1 metre, runs north to south. Plan is to divide it
in 3 for rotation purposes. I want to start by planting maincrop
potatoes(Cara) in a third of it. I see varying advice about the
recommended distances between tubers and rows. What would your advice
be for the orientation of the rows, and planting positions?


.. Personally with such a tiny plot
I would only have planted earlies (expensive) and not bothered with
maincrop (cheap) at all.


Yeaah - but I've only just created this patch so I want to get
something in now, it wasn't ready in time for earlies. It's as much
about having the satisfaction of home produced as saving money. This is
just the first of what will eventually be four similar patches. The
second strip will be oduble dug and ready in about a week. I will then
prepare the next two either at the end of the summer or next year -
depending on how I find the time investment balance works out. At this
stage I'm just going to plant whatever is seasonal to get the
experience. Never done this before.

Thanks for the reply though - I'm beginnning to think that 1 metre wide
is a little bit too narrow. It had been suggested to me to make sure I
could reach across without trampling on it, but maybe a touch wider
would have allowed two rows of these potatoes. I could do that for next
time!