Did anybody notice on Gardeners World last night the item on growing
potatoes in straw?
It's a new one on me.
Has anyone tried it?

"Dave Hill" wrote ...

Did anybody notice on Gardeners World last night the item on growing
potatoes in straw?
It's a new one on me.
Has anyone tried it?


Yes, the woman on GW. :-)
A problem I would see here is...first get a few bales of straw.
Certainly cheaper to do it the old fashioned way with a bit of hard work.

-- Regards
Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup
from the W.of London. UK

On Sat, 27 Aug 2011 11:57:51 -0700 (PDT), Dave Hill
wrote:

Did anybody notice on Gardeners World last night the item on growing
potatoes in straw?
It's a new one on me.
Has anyone tried it?

It goes back to the "All muck and magic"days on Channel 4.

Pam in Bristol

Dave Hill wrote in news:bc9fbd6d-ffb2-4d79-
:

Did anybody notice on Gardeners World last night the item on growing
potatoes in straw?
It's a new one on me.
Has anyone tried it?

I have heard of this.
Is it called, or at least the method, "no dig"?

I don't watch GW anymore, so can't comment.

Baz

Bob Hobden wrote:
A problem I would see here is...first get a few bales of straw.

Are you finding it difficult to get bales of straw? We have 2 sitting on
the lawn right now, I think Nick pays about 2 quid each from a local horsey
place for them.

Vicky wrote

Bob Hobden wrote:
A problem I would see here is...first get a few bales of straw.

Are you finding it difficult to get bales of straw? We have 2 sitting on
the lawn right now, I think Nick pays about 2 quid each from a local horsey
place for them.

Haven't tried. Got an allotment for my spuds so don't need to try straw
bales other than after they have passed through the horse.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

Bob Hobden wrote:
Are you finding it difficult to get bales of straw? We have 2 sitting on
the lawn right now, I think Nick pays about 2 quid each from a local horsey
place for them.
Haven't tried. Got an allotment for my spuds so don't need to try straw
bales other than after they have passed through the horse.

We got a bit tired of all of the digging up and not finding them all. This
year we did them in buried bags. The number of spuds seems to be a lot
smaller, but they're an /awful/ lot easier to remove, and it will hopefully
stop the millions of potatoes cropping up where they're not meant to next
year.

Vicky wrote ...

Bob Hobden wrote:
Are you finding it difficult to get bales of straw? We have 2 sitting on
the lawn right now, I think Nick pays about 2 quid each from a local
horsey
place for them.
Haven't tried. Got an allotment for my spuds so don't need to try straw
bales other than after they have passed through the horse.

We got a bit tired of all of the digging up and not finding them all. This
year we did them in buried bags. The number of spuds seems to be a lot
smaller, but they're an /awful/ lot easier to remove, and it will hopefully
stop the millions of potatoes cropping up where they're not meant to next
year.

I always think it's the thorough deep digging looking for spuds every 4
years (4 year rotation) that makes the soil deeply friable. Who needs double
digging when you grow spuds.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

Bob Hobden wrote:
We got a bit tired of all of the digging up and not finding them all. This
year we did them in buried bags. The number of spuds seems to be a lot
smaller, but they're an /awful/ lot easier to remove, and it will hopefully
stop the millions of potatoes cropping up where they're not meant to next
year.
I always think it's the thorough deep digging looking for spuds every 4
years (4 year rotation) that makes the soil deeply friable. Who needs double
digging when you grow spuds.

I think you're probably right. That and the manure/compost added. But it's
ok, we dug the bags in, so there was still a fair bit of digging put into
it. Plus we riddled the soil into the bag, so there was a lot of spraff and
stones removed during the process.

Martin wrote:
A problem I would see here is...first get a few bales of straw.

Are you finding it difficult to get bales of straw? We have 2 sitting on
the lawn right now, I think Nick pays about 2 quid each from a local horsey
place for them.

LOL
My wife quoted the ridiculous price of small quantities of straw sold
by the local pet shop


It's quite stunning the amount of mark-up on hamster-straw!