Preparing to lift potatoes

If you’re growing a small number of potatoes and using them within a short space of time, then you can just pull up your tatties when they’re ready, clean them and eat then.

But if, like us, you’re growing enough maincrop potatoes to last a year then there’s a lot more work to do before you can lift them - not least if you have 400sq metres of potatoes as we do!

The first thing to decide is when you’re aiming to lift your maincrop. We want them all out before the first frosts hit in late September, so we want our crop lifted by the end of the second week in September - weather permitting.

Snap!

When building a fence with high-tensile wire I either use a chain strainer on the non-live wires or an in-line ratchet strainer on the live electric wires.

But when a pig decided to challenge a section of fence, one of the non-live wires stretched and needed to be re-strained.