Re: Potatoes

Pam,

Hilling up around your plants will definitely help you increase your yield.
The soil for the hilling comes from either side of the plant. By the time
you harvest, the potatoes look like their growing out of definite "hills".
I've never brought in soil to do this. Alternatively, you can use a thick
mulch of straw or hay to do the same thing.

Arzeena
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----- Original Message -----
From: Pamela Kock <pkock@one.net>
To: <veggie-list@eskimo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 9:24 PM
Subject: Potatoes


> I did not want to plant potatoes.  I *love* potatoes, of course, but as a
> relatively inexperienced veggie gardener with limited space (sheesh, I
have
> 1/3 acre, but it's all shady!) and as a fairly lazy person <grin> they
> aren't exactly high on my priority list.  But my dear hubby brought home a
> sack of seed 'taters from a co-worker and ordered me to plant them, being
> from the "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" school.  I was curious,
> though.  So I planted two 15-foot rows, one of the brownish variety and
one
> of the reddish variety (he didn't know what kind they were - I'm hoping
one
> is Yukon Gold) and they're growing like crazy.
>
> Soooo....what do I do next?  I have read that I'll need to pile dirt up
> around the stems as they grow, but I don't know where this dirt will be
> coming from.  Several bags of topsoil and mulch, I guess.  Not a bad
thing,
> of course - my garden soil could always use some amending.  But what a
pain
> in the rear - for the price of this stuff, I could buy the potatoes at the
> grocery.  My mom, who doesn't garden but was born on a farm (ha) claims
that
> when my grandma (who lived with us and theoretically knew what she was
doing
> in the garden) planted potatoes, she didn't do anything but stick 'em in
the
> ground and dig them up later.  No hills, no deep planting, just a hole and
a
> chunk of potato with an eye on it.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Pam
> pkock@one.net
>
>
>
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