[Mel]

Morning 

I dug up some of my Maris Pipers main crop yesterday,not only are they scabby and some split  but many or them are "holed" by some type of worm,grub or Does anyone know what makes these holes? I have cut a few in half and found nothing inside-except a brown burrow so to speak.We still cut them,cleaned them and used them for dinner-were still very nice!

If anyone can advise what I need to do to the ground to rid the pests and such it would be appreciated.

[Millwood]

It's probably wire worm, we had the same problem last year, we've just grown ours spuds in a different spot, havent dug em yet so not sure if its worked!

[clumbaboy]

Hi,
  Sounds like wireworm, I have had the same problem there is no chemical control, it is reccomended to dig the ground and allow the birds to eat the little sods. If the ground has been grassland they are more common and they have a five year life cycle, if you google their control it goes into great detail about them.
 The other posssibility is keel slugs and have not looked at that yet.

[Mel]

It is worse than I thought,I have just dug up four rows of potatoes,that was ten plants in each row,inspected them and then come in and seen your advice re keel slugs,and from looking at pictures on the web,mine have been hit by these slugs and the wire worm and scab with splitting-guess you could not get much worse than that,strange though,we had potatoes in the next plot last year and they came out amazing.

The area which has been allocated used to be grassland-well for ten year prior to us taking over,the beans and cabbages are the only veg which have done very well in the same plot.

Our dustbins were a blast this year,nearly 200 KG of Maris Bard and were perfect,mind you we had countless dustbins growing.Our pink fir apple did not do very well in these tubs.

[clumbaboy]

Hi Leghorn
  Now that sounds bad, was reading an article on keel slugs and they are apparently more active later in the year and the spuds had to be lifted as soon as they were ready
I have the same problem some areas of ground grow perfect no trouble but some areas are rife, my onion sets were decimated this year. so were my potatoes.
the little sods seem to prefer different types of veg but potatoes are their favourite, that seems to be why they mention using a half potato to draw them out in areas that you do not have potatoes.
was talking to my father about this and the only efective control used to be derris dust but this has been withdrawn, which is of no help to us.
Andy

[Odin]

Have you tried a pig manure tea ? Fresh pastures tilled for veg' growing do harbour more grubs. Try pig slurry in a large container like an ISO, not too much, say a couple of bucket loads and let it fill with rain water and leave it to stand. Add a few more bucket loads to keep it potent but keep it thin, its a tea.
Run it in to your furrows prior to planting as a manure but once plants are growing then put a bit down with a watering can into the earth, not the plant and not too much. The grubs do not like the stuff, cant blame em !

[Sylvia]

I'll remember this tip, Odin. I'm a bit fed up with peeling half the spud away to get rid of slug holes!

[Odin]

And don't forget frogs , they apparently eat slugs ? but this is not something I can confirm as never witnessed it, but I certainly have a legion of frogs and some toads patrolling the field & furrows.

[Plantoid]

I had your half devoured spud prob last year  before I found this site. & the year before scabby spuds.
 Here in South Wales it was much more humid than most years ..the tomatoes got blight .

Over the years I've scabby spuds tend to be the result of poor soil or very sandy soil where the manure leeches out quickly ... I had deep manure the bed the year previously with composted horse muck and wood chip there was little goodness in it as the wood chip robs nutrients form the soil as it breaks down .
Apparently taking  around seven years for it to break down . So I bunged in a mix of cow , horse and rotted straw at the rate of one big heaped barrow load per square yard in double dug bed.

 I've had some decent spuds this year but not as good as I should have had.

 Because of the back injury I do not  furrow plant and draw up I've tended to just dig a hole about six inches deep .bung in some well rotted straw based animal manure , dropped the spud in and once it pokes its head through gently draw up the rows to about 10 inches high
 
However lots of people on other sites said because I got so much slug damage I should have put the spuds in deeper , made the ridges bigger and wider apart so that there is a much thicker covering of earth as in wet & humid weather most of the slugs will be in the top 10 inches of soil .

 I think I'll be ending up growing spuds in  several discarded builders bags or similar ( seen some two foot by two foot by two foot woven polyprop bags on eBay and filing them with three spuds per bag and well manured quality light soil , building it up to two feet of soil as the spuds grow.

[SallyintNorth]

I think I'll be ending up growing spuds in  several discarded builders bags or similar ( seen some two foot by two foot by two foot woven polyprop bags on eBay and filing them with three spuds per bag and well manured quality light soil , building it up to two feet of soil as the spuds grow.

The Bob Flowerdew method is to make a pot using old tyres stacked on top of one another, then as the shoots come through, add another tyre and fill with earth, and so on, until you have a tower of spuds.

[Blonde]

Have you tried a pig manure tea ? Fresh pastures tilled for veg' growing do harbour more grubs. Try pig slurry in a large container like an ISO, not too much, say a couple of bucket loads and let it fill with rain water and leave it to stand. Add a few more bucket loads to keep it potent but keep it thin, its a tea.
Run it in to your furrows prior to planting as a manure but once plants are growing then put a bit down with a watering can into the earth, not the plant and not too much. The grubs do not like the stuff, cant blame em !

We plant everything into pig manure....it is lovely stuff, noting seems to live in the soil that puts a hole in the root vegetables, but boy!  does it make the rest of the vegie patch grow.