No-Till Potatoes

martian

DD Moderator
BASE UK Member
Location
N Herts
By way of an experiment, we've just spent the day sprinkling half an acre with a trial of no-till potatoes. Plastered the land with some well rotted FYM and dropped the seed in rows on top and covered with straw. What could possibly go wrong? Do badgers like potatoes? If so they haven't got far to go to find them. We'll have to keep an eye on the rats too. The barn owls will get fat at least.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
interesting ! update with pics please


Assuming success how do you no till harvest without significant soil movement ?
 

KennyO

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Angus
upload_2015-4-18_21-9-47.jpeg
 

Dan Powell

Member
Location
Shropshire
I had a go a couple of years ago in the garden on a very small scale. Mowed a strip in the lawn, placed potatoes, covered each one with a shovel full of compost and then covered with straw.

It worked, but the yield was a bit low and there was a lot of slug damage. I put that down to the high slug population in the surrounding grass.

Definitely worth a go.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I once thought about dropping them in behind the flat lift legs. Not exactly no till, but a lot less bother than what we do now. Clods at harvest time would be a problem but I think they'd still grow. Surprising how much compaction a potato can stand from what I've seen of self sets in the garden.
 

York

Member
Location
D-Berlin
thanks for the pictures.
What I have seen so far is that you need a rely heavy cover. So spreading a round bale I expect that the cover is too little. All trials I have seen where with just rolled out Round bales.
The potatoes for harvest will not grow below the mother tuber, so the harvest was done by "racking" the potatoes together.
Don't know why you did have this wide row spacing. Would have used smaller row spacing to get the best soil cover & harvest of solar Energy.
The biggest challenge are mice, in all similar set ups. You can find quite a number or reports on the internet on this type potato planting.
I have client, organic, which plant's potatoes in Mulch and when the potatoes are emerging he is harvesting the 1st cutting on clover-gras mix and spreading it on the potato fields. So he get's a thick cover. This is done now by a number of organic farmers and with that they get very good yields. It's a transfer of nutrients, N mostly, and also suppressing weeds.
Keep sharing pictures. Maybe you invite us for harvest so we will have a good BBQ on the field.
York-Th.
 

martian

DD Moderator
BASE UK Member
Location
N Herts
thanks for the pictures.
What I have seen so far is that you need a rely heavy cover. So spreading a round bale I expect that the cover is too little. All trials I have seen where with just rolled out Round bales.
The potatoes for harvest will not grow below the mother tuber, so the harvest was done by "racking" the potatoes together.
Don't know why you did have this wide row spacing. Would have used smaller row spacing to get the best soil cover & harvest of solar Energy.
The biggest challenge are mice, in all similar set ups. You can find quite a number or reports on the internet on this type potato planting.
I have client, organic, which plant's potatoes in Mulch and when the potatoes are emerging he is harvesting the 1st cutting on clover-gras mix and spreading it on the potato fields. So he get's a thick cover. This is done now by a number of organic farmers and with that they get very good yields. It's a transfer of nutrients, N mostly, and also suppressing weeds.
Keep sharing pictures. Maybe you invite us for harvest so we will have a good BBQ on the field.
York-Th.
Thanks for your notes.
We piled a fair bit of straw on the rows, not just rolled out bales (though we left one short section just rolled out as an experiment). You can just see some covered rows to the right of the picture. We gave the straw a good soak from the bowser to stop it blowing away, and get everything started.
I'll alert the Red Kites about the forthcoming mouse bonanza!
 
They will be fine for hand harvest but there would be to many clods for mechanical harvest. Years ago by default there was a small area left in the autumn ........ the following autumn sent the harvester in and there were potatoes but the soil clods were as much as the pots yielded.
 

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