How to earth up potatoes

You Will Need

• Potato plants
• Garden fork or spade
• Rake

Total time: 20 minutes

Step 1

Loosen soil between the rows using a garden fork. Use a rake or spade to draw the soil into a ridge along the length of the row around the emerging stems of the potatoes. Leave a shallow trough along the row at the top of the ridge to channel any water down to the developing tubers.

Step 2

When growing potatoes in large pots or sacks, the tubers will have been planted into 10cm of compost at the base of the container. As the shoots emerge, add more compost at regular intervals, 5cm at a time, until the container is almost full.

On light soil, mix in well-rotted garden or bagged compost to earth up the potato plants. This helps conserve moisture which swells the tubers.