South East Potatoes
 

Hi All

I have brought the potato tubs from suttons and planted the potatoes out
about 2-3 weeks ago. I have them covered up with fleece at the moment and a
couple of the tubs have little shoots showing. Thing is, and I know this is
probably silly, but I dont want to keep them covered with fleece as it gets
rather warm in the pots and am worried that it may spark potato blight (as
of the humidity and dampness)... If I was to leave them uncovered and we
got a light frost (one forecasted possibly tonight), as long as I cover the
shoots completely, should they be ok?

Any advice welcome...

Donna

South East Potatoes
 

"Donna UK" wrote ...
I have brought the potato tubs from suttons and planted the potatoes out
about 2-3 weeks ago. I have them covered up with fleece at the moment and
a couple of the tubs have little shoots showing. Thing is, and I know
this is probably silly, but I dont want to keep them covered with fleece
as it gets rather warm in the pots and am worried that it may spark potato
blight (as of the humidity and dampness)... If I was to leave them
uncovered and we got a light frost (one forecasted possibly tonight), as
long as I cover the shoots completely, should they be ok?

Any advice welcome...

You need to protect the young growth from frost only, so until the plants
show above ground you needn't bother. Only cover for the night if anything
like a frost is forecast then you can uncover once the temp is above
freezing or leave the fleece on until all possibility of frost is passed.
Banking up the spuds (covering them with soil) has the same effect BTW.
One point, if you have foxes in your area you may well find they love
playing with fleece. We could never use the stuff on our last allotment, it
didn't last more than 24 hours before being torn to shreds, together with
the plants underneath!
--
Regards
Bob Hobden