also on the plate ;-)
I follow the Dutch approach. We like them only in a long cut "stick" version. roundish or mashed = a no go, not a potatoe.
York-Th.
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No-Till Potatoes
- Thread starter martian
- Start date
I follow the Dutch approach. We like them only in a long cut "stick" version. roundish or mashed = a no go, not a potatoe.
York-Th.
A quick update on how they are doing. We planted three sets of four rows, two sets got a dob of mycorhizal innoculant. These look far better than the control strip
It looks like the RTK lost signal at this point. You can see on the left where badgers, or some other creatures, have been snuffling under the straw. This next picture is without the innoculant
We haven't had more than a drop or two of rain here for a while and it is pretty dry now in places under the straw. The fungi are certainly helping. For interest this last pic is some black oats we drilled in the rest of the field as cover. Looks like we might be able to combine them, the seed will come in handy for cover cropping. It's had zero inputs so far, beyond a bit of dung near the potato rows
It looks like the RTK lost signal at this point. You can see on the left where badgers, or some other creatures, have been snuffling under the straw. This next picture is without the innoculant
We haven't had more than a drop or two of rain here for a while and it is pretty dry now in places under the straw. The fungi are certainly helping. For interest this last pic is some black oats we drilled in the rest of the field as cover. Looks like we might be able to combine them, the seed will come in handy for cover cropping. It's had zero inputs so far, beyond a bit of dung near the potato rows
- Location
- Essex Coast
Looks pretty good to me, John, but why bother with rows, just broadcast them with a muck spreader and roll the straw out on top. Would save on the child labour too. It's an impressive mycoohrizal trial.
RushesToo
Member
- Location
- Fingringhoe
Martian - genius, what a fantastic experiment. Hope that you have lot's of offspring to harvest for pocket money top ups and that they taste good when served.
Great stuff
Great stuff
RushesToo
Member
- Location
- Fingringhoe
And as another thought, if you rake up and clear [or burn?] the residue you may not have to wait the traditional 7 years before you replant.
Now we've had four inches of rain, a further update
That's the control plot, whilst the next snap is with mycorrhizal innoculant
Which is quite a difference, though down the other end of the field the difference is less noticable where the FYM was plastered on a bit deeper.
Pull the straw away (it -the straw- is surprisingly dry in the middle, the rain passes through it and soaks the ground) and you see the potatoes spreading out over the surface of the soil
This last picture gives some idea of how black oats look next to some modern machinery, to give you an idea of scale. (The dog had long since gone)
That's the control plot, whilst the next snap is with mycorrhizal innoculant
Which is quite a difference, though down the other end of the field the difference is less noticable where the FYM was plastered on a bit deeper.
Pull the straw away (it -the straw- is surprisingly dry in the middle, the rain passes through it and soaks the ground) and you see the potatoes spreading out over the surface of the soil
This last picture gives some idea of how black oats look next to some modern machinery, to give you an idea of scale. (The dog had long since gone)
- Location
- Cambridge
Forget the potatoes, the real news looks like that inoculant. Is it from RH's guys?
Yes, they are still doing some research on it, but this looks impressive. When they did some on conventional spuds, I think they found much improved rooting, but no great yield increase. Maybe you could cut irrigation requirements?
- Location
- Cambridge
Ah yes, the old Umostart scenario.
Look how much more the roots weigh, extra leaf area, better establishment blah blah blah
Oh, you want to know about the yield... Hmm, isn't it a nice day today?
- Location
- Surrey/ Kent Border, UK
I've some trial plots ( of a few acres ) of the same mycorrhizal in several fields of triticale, three different rates in a field of soya and some that we added to some vetch to see if the nurse crop of mustard had any effect on the population. To be fair the medium that it is in isn't suitable for accurate large scale mechanical application but they have found some other mediums that I have tested on a small scale that look much better. This will enable us to do more trials.
Someone said to me that he was surprised that I was so convinced that it would work. My reply was that mycorrhizal fungi have been around for millions of years so this was hardly anything new, the bit that I am unsure about is our ability to manage it to our advantage.
Well we harvested most of them today. Grading them quite hard we about filled two potato boxes with crisp quality spuds. There's a lot lying on the ground and some rows still undisturbed. I was astonished by the quantity to be honest. Harvested manually (thanks for asking: I can hardly move), nearly all the spuds lay on the soil surface in the interface between straw and soil, so came up quite clean after half an inch of rain yesterday. Quite a few slug damaged, a few mouse nibbled and the odd slightly green one. Definitely the only way to grow tatties in the veg patch, complete doddle compared to digging.
The innoculant seemed to work well, but not cut and dried result, much variety up and down rows. This due to, amongst other possible reasons: thickness of FYM base, waterlogging, thickness of straw (in some places found dry ground under straw, mostly ground is a super SOM rich rotted mulch full of worms and numerous creatures and billions of slug eggs), type of straw (barley much less rotted than wheat, not necessarily better, but cleaner spuds) and the phase of the moon. So not very scientific.
Will post snaps once I work out how to get them off phone...
The innoculant seemed to work well, but not cut and dried result, much variety up and down rows. This due to, amongst other possible reasons: thickness of FYM base, waterlogging, thickness of straw (in some places found dry ground under straw, mostly ground is a super SOM rich rotted mulch full of worms and numerous creatures and billions of slug eggs), type of straw (barley much less rotted than wheat, not necessarily better, but cleaner spuds) and the phase of the moon. So not very scientific.
Will post snaps once I work out how to get them off phone...
RushesToo
Member
- Location
- Fingringhoe
Thank you for keeping this up - a slow burn blog. Really enjoyable.
- Location
- Surrey/ Kent Border, UK
I did try and get you off the hook with a very important phone call but you had already bunked off early chasing cattle.
Re the photos, it's no use asking hop along he's only just got an iPhone himself, best to ask a teenager. Good luck explaining to them about TFF, they'll probably think you've lost the plot. Just call it Facebook for Farmers!
Sorry not to ring you back. Once I'd established it was a nuisance call...
- Location
- Surrey/ Kent Border, UK
I was only offering to handle your claim for a work place injury, with all that heavy lifting at your age it was a certainty, and I wanted to get in first. It was for a very reasonable fee but you just can't help some people.
Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
I have almost no idea about growing potatoes, but would it have been possible to have harvested them mechanically?
- Location
- Hertfordshire
Giant vacuum cleaner....
Pedders
Member
- Location
- West Sussex
what about a carrot harvester ? ...scottish boys straw down carrots overwinter then harvest them don't they ? @Colin
- Tags
- carrots