Potatoes, when do I stop hilling them?

[Oswego]

Planted some potatoes the first week of Feb and as of this morning I have hilled with sawdust/compost. Its up to 1 1/2 feet high with the plants still growing taller daily. Should I Hill them again to have even more room for potatoes to grow in the "hill"? Plants are Dark green and have grown 4" since Sunday morning when I last added some more compost/sawdust.

[geo in mi]

Usually a six to eight inch high hill is enough to give them room to expand and keep them from poking out into the sunlight. You can check on them at blossom time or thereabpouts, and if you see any exposed ones, add some more soil to the hill. That will keep them from being exposed to the sunlight and turning green. Green is not good, as the potato will turn bitter and make a toxic substance that isn't good to eat.......

geo

[LittleRedHen]

I hilled mine a lot last year and in the end, i don't think the hills gave me any extra potatoes or anything. I think its mostly for like geo said, to make sure the tubers cannot see daylight so your hills are totally suffficient

[vallyfarm]

My father said the bigger the top the bigger the root, the smaller the top the more the root. Mike

[Forerunner]

Ideally, in my experience, I hill them a little every time I weed, until the vine shows the first sign of dying, at which time, if not before, I mulch heavily to prevent the little peekers from seeing the light of day, until harvest.

[Maura]

You can keep hilling until the plant starts to give up. They have a specific life span, some longer than others. Our potatoes never grew that fast, but we are up north.

[Oswego]

Will I get potatoes from the upper third of the "hill" as well as plenty near the bottom of the hill? I have been adding to the hill as the plants grew, adding two inches everytime the plants got 4 inches higher than the hill.
Am I right to assume the plant will make taters the whole height of the plant in the hill.

[Roothawg]

Can you guys explain the whole process? I have read up on a few sites, but I don't quite grasp it. Can you just use any potato that has ears and cut a chunk out? I have seen these potato towers, but I haven't actually started one yet. Will I get multiples from one start?

[7thswan]

Originally Posted by Roothawg

Can you guys explain the whole process? I have read up on a few sites, but I don't quite grasp it. Can you just use any potato that has ears and cut a chunk out? I have seen these potato towers, but I haven't actually started one yet. Will I get multiples from one start?

What I do- Till area, make a trench by pulling loose soil aside. Add a piece of potato with atleast one eye. Cover with soil(maybe 3inches). When the plant gets up about 6 inches, pull more soil into the tench. At some point the trench will be full. Go between the rows of potatos with the tiller again, and pull that soil over the stalks of the potato plant again. I usally get too busy , so end up doing 3 coverings. Do not put any Lime where you grow your potatoes. Mulch this area with leaves and pine needles over the winter.

[Paquebot]

Originally Posted by Oswego

Will I get potatoes from the upper third of the "hill" as well as plenty near the bottom of the hill? I have been adding to the hill as the plants grew, adding two inches everytime the plants got 4 inches higher than the hill.
Am I right to assume the plant will make taters the whole height of the plant in the hill.

No, you will not get tubers the full length of whatever is underground. Any bud which develops as a branch will always be a branch and never switch to being a stolon. You may be able to force a potato plant to have a 10' underground stem but all of the tubers are going to be on the first 6" to 8" portion.

Martin

[amylou62]

Kind of off subject. Can you grow potatoes more than in the spring?

[motdaugrnds]

Originally Posted by Paquebot

No, you will not get tubers the full length of whatever is underground. Any bud which develops as a branch will always be a branch and never switch to being a stolon. You may be able to force a potato plant to have a 10' underground stem but all of the tubers are going to be on the first 6" to 8" portion.

Martin

Is this 5" to 8" portion near the top of the soil or near the place where you first set your potatoe?

[Paquebot]

Originally Posted by amylou62

Kind of off subject. Can you grow potatoes more than in the spring?

Late summer with an early variety works in some parts of the country. If too hot, plant matures too early and doesn't make tubers.

Martin

[Paquebot]

Originally Posted by motdaugrnds

Is this 5" to 8" portion near the top of the soil or near the place where you first set your potatoe?

That measurement starts right where the sprout comes out of the eye. If only covered with 2" of soil, all tubers would be in a ring just below the surface.

Martin

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by Roothawg

Can you guys explain the whole process? I have read up on a few sites, but I don't quite grasp it. Can you just use any potato that has ears and cut a chunk out? I have seen these potato towers, but I haven't actually started one yet. Will I get multiples from one start?

One eye (not ear) will form only one sprout, gray or translucent in color, growing upward until it breaks the soil surface. At that point photosynthesis begins and the sprout turns green, becoming a stem, which makes more lateral stems and leaves as the growth continues on up above the ground.
Meanwhile, underground, the same sprout will stay gray in color and begin to develop stolons, the underground type of stems that will eventually swell and grow into new tubers.

There is a theory that, if you keep hilling or stacking soil on top of the gray portion and prevent photosynthesis, you will get an elevator effect of having that underground stem produce more and more stolons and new tubers as it moves upward.......... that you can get a miracle amount of 100 pounds of potatoes from one tower, stack of tires, or whatever..

In reality, though, you must accept the fact that DNA rules, that in most varieties of potatoes you plant, an underground stem portion of about four to six inches, maximum--from the surface of the seed piece upward to the soil surface, is all the length of stem that will expess the DNA that controls the stolon making process.


That's why, potatoes are usually planted in beginning furrows about six inches deep, with pieces about the size of hen eggs, having three or four viable eyes. That's how you work with the DNA, and Nature.

geo

[fatrat]

I plant them about 4-6 inches deep and usually don't need to hill them. If I do it is only once and just enough to cover the surface of the ground. I don't have problems with green potatoes developing.

[amylou62]

Originally Posted by Paquebot

Late summer with an early variety works in some parts of the country. If too hot, plant matures too early and doesn't make tubers.

Martin

Thanks for the info.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

If i could easily get enough of them i would grow potatoes in last falls leaves

when i have done this i get maximum tubers for minimal watering , weeding and harvest time

harvest is very easy , when the plants start to die back pull them up the tubers come with

saving the leaves requires a bit of planning and i don't always get to it , the best i found was to fence a small area and pile the leaves deep in this area , i have thought about using snow fence to make a couple areas to store leaves , the just make holes int he leaves in the spring and drop in potato pieces with eyes and let them grow in a no till manner then move the snow fence over and do it again the next year

we have very sandy soil , ok we have sand that we have amended and call soil

[motdaugrnds]

Thanks Martin.

Greencounty pete I sure like the ease with which that way of growing potatoes appears.

[larryfoster]

When you cut potatoes for planting, how many eyes do you have in each piece?
I have been leaving 2.

My dad could grow potatoes (most everything else,too)
Wish I'd paid more attention.

I hear of yields of 5 or 10 to 1.
Some years I barely get my original amount back