My Sarpo Mira had early blight too, so I lifted them. Strangely, they were in pots next to Axona which never developed early blight and I've left growing. I also planted some Mira straight into my compost bin that still have loads of foliage and no blight. I will leave these as long as I can. When you say a 'handful' of fertiliser, what would you estimate that to be on grams? Thanks.
Hello again. I didn’t have a scale to measure my ‘handful’ in weight accurately. But I did have a set of cooking measuring cups. My ‘handful’ is about a third of a cup or 79ml. Of course application of fertilisers is all about an economic yet beneficial application. Unlike Nitrogen that moves freely through the soil, Potassium is more stable and sticks around until used by plants. So unlike Nitrogen that if applied to much will leach into the water table and be an environmental issue as well as potentially ‘burn’ plant roots. A slight over application of potassium might be uneconomic but not to detrimental to the plants or environment. At least that’s my understanding. So application of one or two handfuls of sulphate of potash to a 30 litre tub would make little difference except in economic terms. I don’t have the biggest hands in the world so I’m thinking my literal ‘handful’ and yours would be pretty similar. Hope that helps. What sort of yields have you been getting from your experiment btw?
@@wayneeighteen My yields were not much better than yours. My splits were 0.5 tablespoon of Spuds Galore (9g), 0.5 tablespoon of Blood, Fish, Bone(8g) and 2 tablespoons of dried, powdered banana skin versus double this amount in 30 litre pots with homemade compost. I noticed no discernible difference in these fertiliser ratios with Mira, Una and Kifli. I think I am using far too little fertiliser. I bought some bocking 14 comfrey and have that growing in various parts of the garden and trying to establish. Lawrence Hills book says that it is better than growmore and farmyard manure for potato yield and taste. I've also been making a lot more of my own compost, so will have enough to do more experiments next year. I will plant Mira and Axona later than March which I did this year. This will give the bocking 14 some time do have enough leaves that I can use. All my potatoes are battered by the wind as I am at altitude which doesn't help. I can see my compost is good by the amount of foliage I have from the spuds I planted in the compost bin. Lots of nitrogen. I'm finished with shop bought compost now. It's just garbage.
I make you right in regard to shop bought compost. It’s expensive and not particularly good. Also I think there is a danger of chemical pollution in it. On the other hand they do manage to get a lot of heat in it while making it. Which obviously helps kill off weed seeds and pests. I definitely need to improve my compost making skills. I find it hard to turn it often enough to be honest. It’s very time consuming. All the best with your future experiments.
I grow my potatoes in sawdust and get huge potatoes. I buy my sawdust from a feed store l, I use animal bedding
My Sarpo Mira had early blight too, so I lifted them. Strangely, they were in pots next to Axona which never developed early blight and I've left growing. I also planted some Mira straight into my compost bin that still have loads of foliage and no blight. I will leave these as long as I can. When you say a 'handful' of fertiliser, what would you estimate that to be on grams? Thanks.
Thanks for your comment. I shall try to find a way to accurately measure my ‘handful’ and get back to you shortly.
Hello again. I didn’t have a scale to measure my ‘handful’ in weight accurately. But I did have a set of cooking measuring cups. My ‘handful’ is about a third of a cup or 79ml. Of course application of fertilisers is all about an economic yet beneficial application. Unlike Nitrogen that moves freely through the soil, Potassium is more stable and sticks around until used by plants. So unlike Nitrogen that if applied to much will leach into the water table and be an environmental issue as well as potentially ‘burn’ plant roots. A slight over application of potassium might be uneconomic but not to detrimental to the plants or environment. At least that’s my understanding. So application of one or two handfuls of sulphate of potash to a 30 litre tub would make little difference except in economic terms. I don’t have the biggest hands in the world so I’m thinking my literal ‘handful’ and yours would be pretty similar. Hope that helps. What sort of yields have you been getting from your experiment btw?
@@wayneeighteen My yields were not much better than yours. My splits were 0.5 tablespoon of Spuds Galore (9g), 0.5 tablespoon of Blood, Fish, Bone(8g) and 2 tablespoons of dried, powdered banana skin versus double this amount in 30 litre pots with homemade compost. I noticed no discernible difference in these fertiliser ratios with Mira, Una and Kifli. I think I am using far too little fertiliser.
I bought some bocking 14 comfrey and have that growing in various parts of the garden and trying to establish. Lawrence Hills book says that it is better than growmore and farmyard manure for potato yield and taste.
I've also been making a lot more of my own compost, so will have enough to do more experiments next year. I will plant Mira and Axona later than March which I did this year. This will give the bocking 14 some time do have enough leaves that I can use.
All my potatoes are battered by the wind as I am at altitude which doesn't help.
I can see my compost is good by the amount of foliage I have from the spuds I planted in the compost bin. Lots of nitrogen. I'm finished with shop bought compost now. It's just garbage.
I've also started making JADAM JLF, so that might be another thing to throw into the mix next year too.
I make you right in regard to shop bought compost. It’s expensive and not particularly good. Also I think there is a danger of chemical pollution in it. On the other hand they do manage to get a lot of heat in it while making it. Which obviously helps kill off weed seeds and pests. I definitely need to improve my compost making skills. I find it hard to turn it often enough to be honest. It’s very time consuming. All the best with your future experiments.