Potatoes, avoiding green parts

Jake'sGran

A friend was showing me her garden and she had a large strong bag containing potatoes in compost. I noticed shoots showing above the soil and I told her I thought she should cover these with compost when they appear so as to avoid green (poisonous) patches on the spuds. Is this correct?

Deestar36

Jake'sGran wrote: »

A friend was showing me her garden and she had a large strong bag containing potatoes in compost. I noticed shoots showing above the soil and I told her I thought she should cover these with compost when they appear so as to avoid green (poisonous) patches on the spuds. Is this correct?

Yes, you need to cover these shoots/leaves with about 4in of earth, this way the shoots/tubers will grow and produce more spuds underneath. This needs to be done each time the shoots/leaves appear through the earth - I think its called 'earthing up'. When you get to about 3 inches from the top of the bag/pot you need to stop this and allow the plant to grow, although I still think you need to mound the earth up around the plant if the shoots do appear (that's why you need to stop at about 3 or 4 inches from the top to allow for this).

Hope this helps.

Deestar.

jabba4

Jake'sGran wrote: »

A friend was showing me her garden and she had a large strong bag containing potatoes in compost. I noticed shoots showing above the soil and I told her I thought she should cover these with compost when they appear so as to avoid green (poisonous) patches on the spuds. Is this correct?

Not really.

It's the potatoes that need to be covered to prevent light getting to them. This stops them turning green. As long as all the spuds are well covered you'll get no green bits.

The previous posters answer refers to 'earthing' up. You do this to maximise your crop.