Horticultural aide-mémoire

Earth up potatoes

All that hard work chitting and planting out your First Early potatoes will be justified by the keenly anticipated results. The new shoots are now pushing up vigorously. It is necessary to keep covering them as they emerge, partly to keep them safe from frost and partly to ensure the tubers are not exposed to sunlight, rendering them inedible. With a draw hoe, pull up soil from the path across the ridge, higher each time so that it resembles a prism of crumbly earth. Weeds are also effectively controlled by this method, hence the familiar notion that growing potatoes cleans the ground. SCD