Potatoes

What's the blight spray of choice these days, is Dithane still on the go?
Dithane is still on the go but only just, EU has banned Mancozeb so finished up at the end of the year.
I don't know if there is a blight spray of choice, best advice is to have a good mix of chemistry to avoid strains of resistant blight. I'll be using 8 or 9 different products over the season.
 
Dithane is still on the go but only just, EU has banned Mancozeb so finished up at the end of the year.
I don't know if there is a blight spray of choice, best advice is to have a good mix of chemistry to avoid strains of resistant blight. I'll be using 8 or 9 different products over the season.
I have fond memories of mixing Dithane in a bucket with a stick. There was a particular stick selected especially for the job.
 
I have fond memories of mixing Dithane in a bucket with a stick. There was a particular stick selected especially for the job.
Better than a man not far from me, roll up the sleeve and mix it by hand🤪 He's still going strong but not growing spuds any more. Dithane has been dry flow for a good while now so no pre mixing required
 
Better than a man not far from me, roll up the sleeve and mix it by hand🤪 He's still going strong but not growing spuds any more. Dithane has been dry flow for a good while now so no pre mixing required
@gone would no doubt be able to tell us what variety of stick is best suited to the job. What's the breakdown on acreages of the varieties, is Maris Piper still predominantly for chips? Roosters must have taken over as the variety of choice for maincrop, I wouldn't be a fan of them taste wise.
 
@gone would no doubt be able to tell us what variety of stick is best suited to the job. What's the breakdown on acreages of the varieties, is Maris Piper still predominantly for chips? Roosters must have taken over as the variety of choice for maincrop, I wouldn't be a fan of them taste wise.
Elm, without doubt, hard to find now though.
 
Bluestone and washing soda......... Bordeaux or Burgundy? I suppose it's the same question when the Ballon Barley Barons get together......:ban:
:lol:
Ballon is a very small townland 9 fields, under 100 acres, 2 in wild flowers, 2 in grass, 1 in wild bird cover, there are 2 fields of barley in Ballon, not sure which cereal is in the other 2.
I am the only person who grows barley in Ballon, some years, and live in Ballon.
Ballon Barley Barons would be a small get together, a lot of years I wouldn't even qualify.
 
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Ballon is a very small townland 9 fields, under 100 acres, 2 in wild flowers, 2 in grass, 1 in wild bird cover, there are 2 fields of barley in Ballon, not sure which cereal is in the other 2.
I am the only person who grows barley in Ballon, some years, and live in Ballon.
Ballon Barley Barons would be a small get together, a lot of years I wouldn't even qualify.
I bet it would be a wild and crazy party all the same, to mark the occasion
 
Will you talk us through that, what's each machine doing, what are the APV seeders for? I used to drive a destoner a bit in a past life, I'd nearly fall asleep thinking abouzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Case Optum is rising ridges, he does this on the ploughing, usually a day or 2 ahead of the rest, depending on the weather. This photo was last year so he wasn't getting too far topreserve some moisture (he's not doing anything in the photo, it was staged)
2 X rotavators with ploughs, the apv's are for applying nemathorin.(to control wireworm in ley) It needs to be mixed in with the soil. The destoners and planters....
 
Case Optum is rising ridges, he does this on the ploughing, usually a day or 2 ahead of the rest, depending on the weather. This photo was last year so he wasn't getting too far topreserve some moisture (he's not doing anything in the photo, it was staged)
2 X rotavators with ploughs, the apv's are for applying nemathorin.(to control wireworm in ley) It needs to be mixed in with the soil. The destoners and planters....
The ridges are made in the ploughed ground, before it's tilled?
 
There'd be a mix of everything, there would be some fresh ley every year and long term tillage with a 5yr rotation. Everything gets ridged because there's no GPS on the rotovator tractors
Is the autosteer on the ridger then, is it for the sake of keeping everything straight? I haven't a clue, my experience of spuds is the old fashioned way, the shit would be tilled out of the field before there was ever a drill made
 
Is the autosteer on the ridger then, is it for the sake of keeping everything straight? I haven't a clue, my experience of spuds is the old fashioned way, the shit would be tilled out of the field before there was ever a drill made
There is autosteer on the ridger, it keeps everything straight and every bed is a uniform width. Spuds won't grow in a crooked drill you know:eek::eek::eek:
 
@gone i was actually in ballon again a few weeks ago, I was going to send you a message but it was litterly a flying visit on another trip down to Roche, I got the kebab tray out of Jimmy’s on the way back, it was deadly.
 
:lol:
Ballon is a very small townland 9 fields, under 100 acres, 2 in wild flowers, 2 in grass, 1 in wild bird cover, there are 2 fields of barley in Ballon, not sure which cereal is in the other 2.
I am the only person who grows barley in Ballon, some years, and live in Ballon.
Ballon Barley Barons would be a small get together, a lot of years I wouldn't even qualify.
I think I spent an Easter weekend in Ballon, late eighties IIRC.......
 
:lol:
Ballon is a very small townland 9 fields, under 100 acres, 2 in wild flowers, 2 in grass, 1 in wild bird cover, there are 2 fields of barley in Ballon, not sure which cereal is in the other 2.
I am the only person who grows barley in Ballon, some years, and live in Ballon.
Ballon Barley Barons would be a small get together, a lot of years I wouldn't even qualify.
My brother lived in Ballon for a while, worked for a Johnny Murphy lad, bit of tillage and a bit of plant hire iirc.
 
My brother lived in Ballon for a while, worked for a Johnny Murphy lad, bit of tillage and a bit of plant hire iirc.
@Bog Man would know Johnny better than me, but your Brother earned his money in some of the places Johnny use to rent.
 
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Is the autosteer on the ridger then, is it for the sake of keeping everything straight? I haven't a clue, my experience of spuds is the old fashioned way, the shit would be tilled out of the field before there was ever a drill made
Battering the living daylights out of it with a rotovator was the way here then half a ton of main crop potato sp, it had to be sulfate of potash for higher dry matter tatties.
 
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