Potato question...

[lesa]

I planted my potatoes in a trench. They grew very well. When the leaves were full and up maybe 6 inches, I hilled with dirt. Another 6 inches, I hilled with straw. I am just about ready for another layer of dirt... How many times do I do this? How much of the plant should be left uncovered?? I see fields of potatoes with quite a bit of green showing...This is my first time planting in the garden- used buckets before. Thanks!

 

[ducks4you]

I'm interested, too. Last year's potatoes got choked out by weeds. THIS year's were thrown in the ground with no expectations, but I got back from my vacation to find 15, 12-15 inch super green and healthy potato plants growing. MINE are not in a good spot to hill, but if I really need to do it I can make some chicken-wire cages for them and line the sides with newspaper to hold the dirt.)

 

[call ducks]

when we hill are Potatos, we just use dirt nothing else, we hill 1 or 2 times (some times more) in the season.

 

[BlackThumb]

I hilled mine a total of three times, about 10" total. Next time, I will do it maybe four or five times, 16 to 16", because my plants fell over way too soon. Especially after a good watering.

I just learned about the trench method last week. Since I have a tiller, I think I will try that next year. Really like it. So much easier to pull down the soil and mulch than to hill it up. And then the soil is very loose and easy to harvest from.

 

[jojo54]

we hill ours twice or so. Potatoes are hilled so the potato stays covered and doesn't turn green plus also to make them easier to dig. The potatoes grow closer to the top so the soil is looser and the potatoes can grow to a good size. I once planted potatoes in clay soil and they didn't do as well because it was hard for them to grow in the hard soil and it was hard to hill them. However, it did improve the soil for the next year.

 

[BetterHensandGardens]

I planted my potatoes in a trench. They grew very well. When the leaves were full and up maybe 6 inches, I hilled with dirt. Another 6 inches, I hilled with straw. I am just about ready for another layer of dirt... How many times do I do this? How much of the plant should be left uncovered?? I see fields of potatoes with quite a bit of green showing...This is my first time planting in the garden- used buckets before. Thanks!

I use the "lazy bed method" and just use straw. It's a lot less work, and yielded well last year. But whatever method used, basically you just need to make sure you have enough straw or dirt down so the tubers never get exposed to light. If you're using straw and dirt, probably 15" of hilling should do it. :tools

There are more details on the "lazy bed method", it you're interested here: http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/2010/05/02/planting-potatoes-lazy-bed-method/

 

[digitS']

The "lazy bed" way of growing a crop seems to have changed over the last couple hundred years. The archeological evidence of this type of agriculture is still apparent on the landscape of the British Isles. If it was just a matter of growing under mulch, I don't think that much could be seen after a season or 2.

Here are some photographs with explainations of a present-day Irish potato grower using the lazy bed technique. Seed potatoes are laid out on fallow ground. On either side, a trench is dug and the sod is turned over, onto the seed potato. So, instead of going to the trouble of digging a trench and refilling, TWO trenches are dug!

Here is a photograph of ancient lazy beds still to be found where the technique was once practiced.

Lesa, I hill only once - putting down fertilizer before pulling the soil around the plants. I go back now and then to make sure that the tubers are not showing up above ground and cover those that do. I make no attempt to cover the foliage. The leaves are doing the work of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is how the plant produces sugars and starches. For the potato plant, that is how it produces the tubers.

Steve