Yes, it is past time so do it ASAP. You need to hill up around the stems as they grow, especially the varieties that will produce tubers above the root level.

They will require feeding of some kind regularly throughout the season for best production. What you use is your choice. If you have an active soil micro herd then regular additions of more fresh compost may be sufficient.

Number of stems depends on the variety and the size of the seed potato you planted. More stems usually means more potatoes but smaller (all other variables being equal), less stems usually means less potatoes but larger ones.

Dave

If you planted seed potatoes with lots of eyes, you'll get lots of sprouts.

Ronniger's recommends fertilizing with diluted molasses.

hmmm dunno? hilling 'taters does not seem to produce more spuds up the stem, we grow sebago's and red pontiacs, they all form on the root system immediately above the planted tuber stock.

hilling basically stops ultra violet affecting the 'taters and turning them green.

this years crop is in and growing well, just added more mulch and they kicked along more. oh! kipflers and red-p's

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens instant potato patch

Hilling is good for 1. keeping roots cool, 2. keeping tubers out of the sun, and 3, suppressing weeds. It won't add significantly to tuber production.

There's no rush to hilling potatoes. And all you need is a few inches to keep the spuds out of the sun. You've got a long time to wait for the beginning of tuber production, so take your time.

I disagree. If many varieties of potato plants are kept hilled up as they grow, if the stems are kept buried under moist soil as they grow, additional adventitious roots and stolons will develop up the main stem. If exposed to the air for long those stolons will dry up. if kept buried, those stolons will also develop tubers and so increase production?

If you have ever grown potatoes in any sort of deep container, when harvested, you can find potatoes in layers at several different levels in the soil.

Thick layers of mulch are used to prevent sun exposure and greening. But hilling up soil will increase production.

At least that is how it has always worked in my garden.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: The Botany of the Potato Plant

Do not take your time, it's past time. More seriously, and I know this this will probably be disappointing news, but you planted far too late for any part of florida. The very hot weather will come when those plants are just trying to set tubers and they will likely not produce or produce very little.

In fl z9a you can plant potatoes in fall, but the ideal time is early january. Certainly not later than early february. Potatoes I planted there in late january are harvesting now. Live and learn, next year you can get a crop, or even try again in october.

Agree. Last year I kept hilling my container russets, and it was a job keeping them from literally popping out of the top of the soil. They grew all the way from the bottom to the top of the container. Albeit smaller potatoes at the top.

Well I hilled up, leaving 2-3 inches of leaves showing. I hope its not too late for potatoes. The weather has been so weird this year! But someone gave these to me as a gift so I figured I'd throw em in the ground and see what happens. Half the fun for me is just examining the plant as it grows and learning from everyone on GW. :-) Next time I grow potatoes, fall perhaps, I'll know a lot more. :-)

Russets grow like that. They love to poke their heads out of the ground.

I just hill them once or twice. Then they will have tops as tall az 16". The hilling is to provide room for tumers, keep root system cooler, require less watering.

Once I experimented with stacks of tire( 3 of them) but did not get any more than normal hill planting. It was just a waste of time and effort.

Potato production depend on root system and nutrients. They can just produdce a certain amount, max., no matter how high they are hilled.

In fact there is variation in tuber set depending on early or late cultivar - somewhat similar to determinant vs in determinant with tomatoes. Late cultivars will continue to put out stolons from the stem even after lower portions of the stem have greened before hilling, or so I have read. With early cultivars timely hilling is quite important as it likely does increase yield.

Kalie, come back and report later because I'd be interested to know if potatoes planted so late in FL will make any new tubers - that would be useful info.

Ok, I will keep posting as the weeks pass. :) I will also make sure to take pictures of whether or not any potatoes formed in the hills or just underneath.

If any potatoes form at all, that is. (Fingers Crossed)

What about yukon gold? I have heard conflicting info as to whether or not they need to be hilled. If they do when should they be? My sprouts are only about 2 inches tall max.

Newbie potato question: should one remove the leaves and side stems as one hills up the potatoes? I imagine anything below the soil line would contribute to rot and disease.

I'm a veteran when it comes to tomatoes and peppers, but this is my first year growing potatoes.

What about Yukons? Hybrids such as them tend to develop minimal if any stolons off the main stem. That isn't to say they shouldn't be hilled however. All potatoes require some hilling and as mentioned above it is done as they grow. The 2" tall plants can be covered almost completely and they will continue growing right up through it. Then you rake more soil around them and continue to do so until the hill is about 10-12" tall and then mulch. And depending on soil moisture levels and available nutrients you may get a few extras.

should one remove the leaves and side stems as one hills up the potatoes?

Not unless you want to sacrifice production. You can even bury them and they keep right on growing. Ever trench in a long leggy tomato plant, bury all that stem? Did it rot? No, it developed roots all along that buried stem. Same with potatoes.

Dave

Once I experimented with stacks of tire( 3 of them) but did not get any more than normal hill planting. It was just a waste of time and effort.

If you decide to try it again use a different container. Makes a BIG difference. Stacks of old black tires trap and hold far too much heat for potatoes and that is what prevented good production for you and made it a waste of time and effort.

Dave.

Thanks Dave. I do usually remove the leaves and side shoots from the parts of the tomato stems that I bury, which is why I assumed that one might do the same to potatoes. But I will hill mine as-is.

TY Dave.

Some years ago we had multiple very involved threads about the potato tower technique. Some of them may have gotten cached.

So I thought I would come back to update this thread now that it is harvest time. I have only uprooted one potato plant so far, but it was thrilling! There were 4 bigger potatoes and 4 smaller ones. The variety was Red Norland. And there were definitely potatoes growing in the part of the hill that was made when I "hilled up" past the level where the dirt was originally. I added soil to the mound whenever more than 6 inches was above the ground and it looks like it works! :) I think more potatoes are still forming because none of the plants have flowered and they are not turning yellow yet. I will harvest another each week and will report back.

It turns out planting late in Florida isn't a complete deal breaker after all. :)

I cannot believe this.
your first post was dated May 6th and here on June 6 (thirty days later) you got a harvest like that !!!

In that May 6th post you mentioned that your plants had been in the ground for two weeks.
Now let me count My fingers :
YOU PLANTED APRIL 22 AND HARVESTED ON JUNE 6. That is less than 45 days ..HMMMMM
I could be making a mistake or MAYBE this is a WONDER potato plant.

This post was edited by seysonn on Fri, Jun 7, 13 at 4:08

Kalie...enjoy your potatoes! Salt, a little butter, a sprinkling of dill...yummy.

I am somewhat amazed. 45 days from putting seed in the ground to good sized new tubers is remarkable. Are you certain of the planting date? What size are those, can't tell from your photo because there is no scale.

Maybe you found a timing sweet spot for extra-new potato production. Also I think you got a big help from unusual cool weather in florida this May - my folks are near Deland and they said it was quite unseasonable. But that's how it goes with gardening, some years will be much better than others. A difficulty with north florida gardening is maneuvering annuals like potatoes around the late frosts and the spring heat. Our potatoes got frosted in mid-march there this year. To get any sizable crop one will have to allow the plants to get nipped a few times because they need the cool growing weather to make large root systems.

The bigger ones are about 2 inches across the middle and the little ones are about 1 inch across the middle. We planted on Saturday April 20th. A friend gave me the bag of seed potatoes because they didn't have room for them and they thought it was too late. But I had extra room and wanted to see how it would go. The weather in April was still really cool at nights and even during the day sometimes it was only around 65 degrees. Very unusual for Jacksonville. Even now we are still in the 70s some days. We've also had some really heavy downpours of rain.

I'm not sure what factors really contributed to the potatoes growth, but I'm glad about it! I was excited just to see what the plants looked like... and the other day I got curious so I stuck my hand down under one of the plants about 8 inches and there were potatoes there! :) So I decided to harvest that one plant to see what level the potatoes were growing and how many might be under each plant.

I will pull another on up next Wednesday and report back with better pictures.

Ps - the potatoes were planted in trenches. We dug down 2 feet and then filled one foot with a combination of black kow composted manure and mushroom compost. At 3 weeks I sprinkled a small amount of 10-10-10 fertilizer on top the the soil that I had hilled up at that point. At 5 weeks I added more soil so the mounds were about 4 inches above the ground. That was about 16 inches above the original soil line and 18 inches above the seed potatoes.

Oh, and don't you love my corn? :) It's my first time growing that as well. What a fun Spring this has been! :)

{{gwi:49779}}

Beautiful garden, Kalie. Good for you! I planted Daisy Gold potatoes on 4/21. I was amazed to see flowers 5/31. Very soon I'll be feeling around under the mulch for goodies.

Beautiful garden I am excited for you and hope my experiment turns out as well as yours. I planted organic purple potatoes.
I did not know if hilling was necessary but I did it anyway and fertilized for the first time so I hope that with the rain gets things really going for mine
kim

Potatoes are heavy feeders so they respond well to plenty of N and K which the composted manure certainly supplied. With that large amount of plant food in the ground (which the potatoes will not have time to fully exploit) you should be able to follow directly with a hot-weather crop to use it up before it leaches through the sand.

These have been hilled up twice, I have hilled them up one last time (last week, but didn't get a picture yet).

They were planted in a lister trench then covered up, hilled up 3 times and we are still waiting for some potatoes!

{{gwi:49781}}

Jay

Jay,
I envy you.

Wish I had that much space in my yard and that kind of dirt at my disposal. I would be running around like that old scientist did in the black and white Frankenstein movie yelling "It`s alive! It`s alive!" LOL!

That sure is a very nice picture!

:)

Kalie,

I like the organization that you have gone to, to make your garden also. You have a very nice layout! I just hilled up my `taters tonight.

Oh, another thing to add. I use Black Kow processed cow manure too. My beans went ballistic the first year I used it in another garden patch. This year, I dumped in 500# of it in another 10 x 10 foot plot and planted my potatoes in it. Will see how it goes.

Hobbiest:

Thanks for the kind words. I am very excited about our potatoes this year. This is the first year I have had a small tractor and I have been able to hill up all our potatoes with a disc hiller I made to go on the 3 point hitch. It takes me no time at all to hill them.

Also, this is the smallest of our 3 potato patches.

Jay

That is some sweet stone-free dirt.

I helped out with some wheat-harvesting one time in Kansas and the incredible deep stone-free soil is hard to believe even when looking at it, for an east-coaster.

we grow through winter, so ours take longer generally around 4 months, our trick si to get good plant growth before winter comes, we have that and have mulched them up higher.

by the looks of the plants we should get a good crop, found more spuds with sprouts in the fridge to replace those seedies that didn't grow. from the 1st planting, they will grow slower now that winter is here.

but a good haul you got in such a short time.

len