Potatoes for Dummies

[Mackerel]

Hey fellow HT'ers! I need a little help. Its my first time growing potatoes, and I'm not sure what the proper way to hill them is. I was told that as soon as leaves protrude from the soil, mound it up and only leave a small amount of foliage showing. No mention was made of flowers or frequency, as I've seen on the boards. Would one of you please give me a little instruction/direction?

[survivalbob]

Taters are easy. Dig hole, drop tater piece in, cover with 1 inch dirt. Water.
When you see sprouts, cover 'em up mostly, leaving only a little poking out. As they get bigger, keep covering them up. Soon you'll have a mound instead of a hole.
Flowers shouldn't show up till they're big and bushy but don't really matter. Flower or not, you'll have taters.
Once the plants fall over, dig em up and heat a pan. Remember to save some for next years seed potatoes.

[Marcia in MT]

I finally found specific instructions for hilling potatoes, by Steve Solomon. (My apologies to Martin if he's given instructions before and I've missed them.)

Hill to cover no more than one quarter of the new growth at any one time.

[Paquebot]

Remember how deep you planted your seed piece. When plants begin to emerge, draw up enough soil to just barely cover the unfurled leaves. Do it again 3 or 4 days later and again until the top of the mound is approximately 8 inches above the seed piece. That is a sufficient enough tuber production zone under normal conditions. If you have at least that much soil above the seed piece, no further action is needed regardless of how much more growth occurs.

Martin

[Forerunner]

I plant my potatoes in a shallow furrow, hill/weed them once when they are 6 to 8 inches high, then mulch with mixed grass clippings, leaves and fine wood chips. Straw would work just as well. Potatoes like moisture and detest hot, dry soil. Mulch is the answer to these. The actual mature potato tubers need to be well covered to prevent greening in the sun. Mulch answers this, as well.