Potato harvest

[redjon69]

blimey, don’t know how I’d cope in that situation. Hope you haven’t got too many acres to go at.

15 acres

 

[Hindsight]

15 acres

On moss soil? Are you used to overwintering? Variety and intended market? Being nosy, so apologies. I knew a grower near Eccles but they packed in a few years ago.

 

[redjon69]

On moss soil? Are you used to overwintering? Variety and intended market? Being nosy, so apologies. I knew a grower near Eccles but they packed in a few years ago.

yep, on moss soil, yes overwintering but not intentionally lol,melody and piper, and we're in eccles so it might have been my dad you knew, although a lot of the farmers have given up round here on the moss

 

[Devil's advocate]

yep, on moss soil, yes overwintering but not intentionally lol,melody and piper, and we're in eccles so it might have been my dad you knew, although a lot of the farmers have given up round here on the moss

Sorry about the weather & injury.

I guess you are well to the West of Manchester, you certainly get the rain out there & so many farm shops, mind you plenty of chimney pots too.

I've 18 ton to lift we pick by hand here, so 9 pairs two ton per pair. They have wintered well circa 15% losses & some of those would be green anyway.


30 years ago the best potatoes to buy in late April were those windrowed & buried deep by big ridging bodies off the well drained "moss". Is the practise still carried out?

Not far from you as the crow flies at Penistone but sometimes feels a very long way indeed.

 

[redjon69]

Sorry about the weather & injury.

I guess you are well to the West of Manchester, you certainly get the rain out there & so many farm shops, mind you plenty of chimney pots too.

I've 18 ton to lift we pick by hand here, so 9 pairs two ton per pair. They have wintered well circa 15% losses & some of those would be green anyway.


30 years ago the best potatoes to buy in late April were those windrowed & buried deep by big ridging bodies off the well drained "moss". Is the practise still carried out?

Not far from you as the crow flies at Penistone but sometimes feels a very long way indeed.

not windrowed round here, not sure about elsewhere in lancs though.

 

[Hindsight]

not windrowed round here, not sure about elsewhere in lancs though.

Up around Burscough / Ormskirk if I recall some growers covered up with soil.

 

[Devil's advocate]

How deep are the moss soils & are they shrinking?

Perhaps they are still getting marled from cleaning out the ditches?

Always amazes me the depth of peat on the moors, so high up. Yet that must be the source of the moss soils.

 

[riverside2]

Up around Burscough / Ormskirk if I recall some growers covered up with soil.

Still a reasonable amount of this done. Harmony the main variety that is suitable for doing this, little bit of Piper also gets windrowed and the odd field of other washing varieties.

 

[redjon69]

How deep are the moss soils & are they shrinking?

Perhaps they are still getting marled from cleaning out the ditches?

Always amazes me the depth of peat on the moors, so high up. Yet that must be the source of the moss soils.

around 10-15feet around here, not sure if its shrinking or not, at the minute its probably twice the size with all thos rain!

 

[glasshouse]

P

Sorry about the weather & injury.

I guess you are well to the West of Manchester, you certainly get the rain out there & so many farm shops, mind you plenty of chimney pots too.

I've 18 ton to lift we pick by hand here, so 9 pairs two ton per pair. They have wintered well circa 15% losses & some of those would be green anyway.


30 years ago the best potatoes to buy in late April were those windrowed & buried deep by big ridging bodies off the well drained "moss". Is the practise still carried out?

Not far from you as the crow flies at Penistone but sometimes feels a very long way indeed.

PPppenistone???

 

[glasshouse]

How deep are the moss soils & are they shrinking?

Perhaps they are still getting marled from cleaning out the ditches?

Always amazes me the depth of peat on the moors, so high up. Yet that must be the source of the moss soils.

No its not
The mosses were formed where they are.

 

[Devil's advocate]

around 10-15feet around here, not sure if its shrinking or not, at the minute its probably twice the size with all thos rain!

Good God.

I've only six inch of topsoil.

Buy shear bolts in bulk, no wonder we get a few greens. In a good year we can do 30 ton/acre of taties or 1,000 doz/acre caulie. Would love to farm deep soil but I would miss the stone walls & stone culverts.

Perhaps I should count my blessing gravity will always shift our water.

 

[Devil's advocate]

No its not
The mosses were formed where they are.

Anyone from Lancs to clarify? Spagnum moss been a plant of the peat bogs on the Pennines.

I always thought Lancs soil was only second to some of the low lying land in China & superior to the Fens or Polders because of the Pennine peats eroding to the Mersey flood plane.

 

[renewablejohn]

Anyone from Lancs to clarify? Spagnum moss been a plant of the peat bogs on the Pennines.

I always thought Lancs soil was only second to some of the low lying land in China & superior to the Fens or Polders because of the Pennine peats eroding to the Mersey flood plane.

Actually think your both right. On the West Pennine moor which I am adjacent to its primarily built up from spagnum mosses but the other areas like eccles and ormskirk are river settlement areas off the pennine moors.

 

[glasshouse]

Actually think your both right. On the West Pennine moor which I am adjacent to its primarily built up from spagnum mosses but the other areas like eccles and ormskirk are river settlement areas off the pennine moors.

Flanders moss in scotland is just sbove sea level and was formed there as deep peat when sea levels fell .
There isnt much peat left on it as they strippped it off and dumped it in the river.
The line where they stopped can be clearly seen about ten to fifteen feet of peat over clay

 

[Flat 10]

Flanders moss in scotland is just sbove sea level and was formed there as deep peat when sea levels fell .
There isnt much peat left on it as they strippped it off and dumped it in the river.
The line where they stopped can be clearly seen about ten to fifteen feet of peat over clay

Why and who and when?

 

[glasshouse]

Why and who and when?

The landowners let the land for twenty yrs on condition that the tenants remove the peat about 200 yrs ago

 

[Devil's advocate]

The landowners let the land for twenty yrs on condition that the tenants remove the peat about 200 yrs ago

Was it very acidic peat? What a strange thing to ask the tenants to do. Were they after clay for bricks or pipes?

 

[glasshouse]

Was it very acidic peat? What a strange thing to ask the tenants to do. Were they after clay for bricks or pipes?

Well the carse land they left behind is pretty good
Thr peat was pretty useless

 

[redbaron]

Neighbour came yesterday to finish off a field started late November. Arrived with 2 x 2 row s/p harvesters, and 3 x 2 row trailed harvesters. Plus up to 7 tractors and trailers. Value of kit? Labour costs? Difficult to actually see them moving.