space between potato drills

Tony Fitzgibbon asked 14 years ago

i planted some potatoes for the first time and i think i may have not left enough room between the drills. it is roughly a foot between each drill. will this affect the quality badly? i am earthing up the drills as the shoots are now growing. i saw on gardening programme on BBC last night that grass cuttings will also do to protect them from direct sunlight. the soil is quite good but i am just worried that i will not have enough soil to keep them covered

1 Answers

Gerry Daly Staff answered 6 years ago
A foot, 30cm, between drills is not enough and allows no soil for earthing up. You could treat the planted area as a bed and mulch with whatever you can find. Mulches tend to encourage slug activity.

The closed canopy of leaves witll help.

The normal row spacing should be at least twice that, 60 to 80cm. 

Too close spacing can affect tuber size … a greater number of small potatoes.

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