Potatoes

It is always a little nerve-wracking when you change a system slightly but thankfully all the plants are in the centre of the ridge and are spaced reasonably evenly.

Nothing gets irrigated here at the moment. Being at close to the sea as we are, most of the watercourses here are slightly salty so very little of the water available to us is suitable for overhead irrigation. Not that we need any water at the moment. Two weeks ago the fields were as dry as ash and you could do your field walking in your slippers (I feel a strong impulse to point out that I don't own any slippers).

We have had a lot of rainfall since then. The potatoes are all on light silty land this year. This sort of soil normally holds its moisture very well and we planted into some excellent soil conditions. Much better than we had any right to expect after a largely frost-free winter. Weed control is likely to be a problem. The conditions are perfect for weed germination.

It was difficult to make decisions about whether to apply residual herbicides while it was so dry. As it turned out we treated half of the fields before the first of the rain and the other half afterwards. The contact herbicide which we mixed with it worked well without any damage to the potatoes but I am a bit concerned about how effective the residual treatment will be.

Actually this entry is really rather farmerish for me. I will make sure that it doesn't happen too often.