Ploughing in potatoes

steelbar

Hi there,
I have a couple of acres with potatoes not picked yet.
I have been trying to get in touch with the guy who planted them but he is ignoring me.
I have the rest of the field sprayed off, was in spring barley last year and it isl be ready to plough.
Ideally i want them picked, but as I said above he is ignoring me.
What would happen if i plough the spuds in? Would it do much harm in the future? Sowing SB in the whole field again this year.
Could I grub/ power harrow them and let the birds at them?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

grazeaway

what are you planning got put in this year?

to be honest get them out before you plough as they will sprout and grow. if they have been set with a de stoner then you can dig them out with a harvester.

we that ones a few years ago that we couldn't sell so ran it with the harrow to get the spuds up and then left the cattle in to eat them.

steelbar

grazeaway wrote: »

what are you planning got put in this year?

to be honest get them out before you plough as they will sprout and grow. if they have been set with a de stoner then you can dig them out with a harvester.

we that ones a few years ago that we couldn't sell so ran it with the harrow to get the spuds up and then left the cattle in to eat them.

Going to be growing malting barley.

Am looking at running the grubber over them, and let the bird's eat them.
Unfortunately picking them isn't an option as I don't have access to a harvester. The field has not been de stoned.

grazeaway

birds won't do much for you, cattle or sheep.

used a triple K to root them out then let in the cows. they were better then any rotovator. if you leave them in the ground they will grow up through the barley and not just this year, next year too.

Willfarman

Did you get paid for land?

Blackgrass

grazeaway wrote: »

birds won't do much for you, cattle or sheep.

used a triple K to root them out then let in the cows. they were better then any rotovator. if you leave them in the ground they will grow up through the barley and not just this year, next year too.

Be a few years more again til rid of them. Spuds are funny in that it's easy Tigard the crop with herbicides but hard to get rid when they're a weed. Hope got paid up front!

micraX

Plough them down. We've often ploughed down spuds we didn't dig, they'll regrow a bit, get blight and die. Be grand.

steelbar

Thanks for all the info, much appreciated.
Will have to see if any of the neighbours will let me put some of their stock on them, i have none at the moment.

Dawggone

Starane 2 or Starane Gold will control volunteer spuds...stay on top of them or following crop will suffer..,