Mind sharing how you plant and manage your potatoes? I've been very disappointed with my crops the past two years. Doing great on the freedom from bugs and pretty good on the freedom from blight (last year I mis-identified a fungal attack for sunscald and lost a whole row of a variety by responding two late. For whatever reason, an application of equisetum tea brought the others through, however.
Hugh tells me that he doesn't hill any more. He mulches with old hay. (Anyone got good tips for unrolling big bales??) I've got lots of old straw, but straw holds so much water, it kind of worries me to have it around the spuds. I did lose a crop of spuds one year by apply hay after the tops had come up: they melted away with fungus withing the week. Woody's suggestion of dipping the cut pieces in a slurry of local clay and BC has worked very well for us. I don't think we ever have a cutting that doesn't result in a plant. A good geek question for me: my Albrecht report suggests two tons of lime an acres. The area I want to put the spuds in has not been limed (the pH is 6.8) and I'd like to lime it after I put the spuds in but most sources say to not lime a spud patch because it leads to scab. For myself, however, I can easily suspect that my low yields could be attributed to not enough calcium-based lime in the soils (Ideas?) How do you do your spuds?
