Growing Pains: Spuds

Planted our spuds today. They have been chitting nicely in the shed for the past number of weeks. I now its a bit early but the weathers been pretty good so hopefully the ground temperature is not too bad. Planting Kerr's Pinks this year as we prefer the floury types.

Dug two trenches, not giving to much space to spuds this year as they are quiet space intensive. Went for one of the shadier parts of the garden, it still gets a good bit of sun but is partially shaded.

I dug down another 5 inches or so and put in some manure. Make sure you leave the tubers pointing up. I probably didn't leave enough space between each spud but hey.

I've left a good bit of soil for use "planting up" which is covering the leaves of the potatoes as they grow. This increases yield and ensures that the potatoes are not exposed to sunlight.

Exposure to sunlight causes potatoes to become green. The green is actually chlorophyll which indicates an increase in glycoalkaloids which are toxic. More information can be found here.

I never got a chance to water them in because it started bucketing down. Which was great because our water-butt was empty. It is now full!