Potato planting has begun at The Potato Shop - and it's quite the process!

We did it! We managed to start planting potatoes back in March, something we thought was going to be postponed due to the constant rain we have had this year. Thankfully a bit of sun dried up the fields just enough for us to start ploughing and making a start on prepping the ground. Potato planting is a long process, so ploughing is just the start, but it's a start nonetheless!

🥔 The first part of the process is the fields will be ploughed - the tell-tale sign that this is happening is the swarms of seagulls following the tractor!

🥔 We then bring out the subsoiler. As our potato fields are often flooded over winter the soil can become very compacted and this piece of machinery breaks this all up.

🥔 We then fertilise the ground to ensure we have all the nutrients needed for the potatoes over their growing season.

🥔 Next up is the potato ridger which gives the ground the iconic rows you associate with potatoes.

🥔 We then have the bed former which takes the tops of these ridges off which will allow us to plant the potatoes nicely.

🥔 The penultimate step is destoning the beds, which is literally what it says on the tin. Another piece of machinery goes along these rows and pulls out all the stones, meaning we have less breakages during harvest 🤞

🥔 Finally, we are then able to plant the potatoes. We have a new planter which has made this process much quicker and uses far less labour.

All of this happens over a few weeks, as long as the weather is on our side. You can see why we thank our farmers so much. A lot goes into potato planting and without them, we wouldn't have any potatoes!

Find out more about The Potato Shop at morghew.com/the-potato-shop