Susan You don't have to hill them with soil. You can hill them with anything, like compost, straw, even black plastic that covers the potatoes that develop above the soil, anything that keeps the sun from them. The potatoes are separate from the true roots. The roots grow down into the soil, and potatoes develop above-ground from "stolons" that grow from the lower stem. That's why the plants must be hilled with dirt or compost. You're covering the potatoes developing above-ground. There are several ways that potatoes are grown: You can grow potatoes in the ground, in stacks of straw or mulch, in black plastic bags, in garbage cans or to stacks of tires. Potatoes can be a fun and easy crop to grow. Field growing: This is the conventional way most potatoes are grown. Generally, the seed potatoes are planted about 12 inches apart in rows that are spaced 2 to 3 feet apart. The seed pieces' are planted about 1 inch deep, then covered with additional soil as the sprouts develop. Straw: For centuries, Scandinavians have grown potatoes in stacks of straw or other mulching material. Potatoes are planted above ground in the straw, and as the vines begin to grow, additional straw` or mulch is mounded up around the base of the plants. This results in a yield of very clean potatoes. New potatoes can be harvested easily even before the potato vines mature completely. Under plastic or in plastic garbage bags: Garden soil or a commercial potting soil can be used to grow the potatoes in the bags, Fold over the top half of the bag, fill with soil, and plant a certified seed potato that has been cut in half. The plastic bag can be set above ground wherever it's convenient. Punch holes in the bottom of the bag for drainage. You also can plant potatoes under black plastic. Cut open a piece of the black plastic, and plant a potato piece. The potato tubers will develop as they would in the open ground. However, the tubers that develop close to the surface of the soil are shaded by the black plastic and should not develop the green inedible portions that often are found on other tubers. The black plastic also will aid in controlling weeds. Garbage cans or containers: Old garbage cans, or wooden or fiberboard-type containers are suitable for growing potatoes, if they have adequate drainage. You can conserve space by growing them in this manner. A word of caution, though: The plants tend to dry out more rapidly when grown in containers, so additional watering will be needed. Otherwise, you're likely to end up with misshapen tubers. Potatoes can be grown in tires. There are two different methods of growing potatoes in tires. One way is to stack three or four tires, fill them with soil and plant two to three seed pieces about 1 or 2 inches deep in the top tire. The black of the tire absorbs and radiates heat, and there usually is a heavy yield. Another method is to put a tire on the ground, fill it with soil and plant the potatoes within the tire. Plant two seed potatoes, whole or halved, about 2 inches deep. Once the potatoes have developed 3 or 4 inches of foliage growth, a second tire can be put on top of the first, Fill in with more soil, always leaving at least 2 inches of leaf growth above the soil level. Continue to fill as the plants grow. Once you've filled in the center of the second tire, continue the stack to a height of three or four tires. Keep in mind you must always leave about 2 inches of foliage showing. Last year, we grew potatoes in eight stacks of tires, using eight different potato varieties. Each tire stack averaged 11 pounds of potatoes: Some readers have reported yields of up to 38 pounds per stack. Others have reported poor results, averaging as few as one or two potatoes per stack. Over-watering or the use of too much high nitrogen fertilizer could be the reason for poor yields. The reason you can grow potatoes successfully in this manner is that potatoes develop on stems above the roots. Of course, it's for this reason that mounding or mulching potatoes is recommended so highly. Some of the potatoes that we grew in tire stacks were not harvested until January of this year. So the tire stacks also provided an ideal place to store them throughout fall and winter.

A gardener who doesn't like playing in the dirt??? ;) Unfortunately root crops like potatoes, whether sweets or Irish, need to be dug out of the soil - even when those potatoes are grown in straw. All you need is a potato fork to dig them up with. Dave

SLUGS!!! Up here in the Northwest we have so much of a slug problem that we have given in and put a collar and leash on them and take them for very slow walks!! I have been using Sluggo for 4 years now and am very pleased with the results. We have two dogs and I have never had any fear of them getting poisoned. I just make sure that the Sluggo is sprinkled UNDER the leaves of the plants and I do this several times during the season. Ref: Growing potatoes I have been growing potatoes in a well drained large plastic garbage can. I took a hole saw and made many holes on the sides and bottom. With about a foot of mulch in the bottom I laid in the first of the seeds (why do they call them seeds when they are just cut-up taties??). Then about six inches of mulch. I await the green plant to poke it's head out of the dirt about 12 inches and then I add another 8-10 inches of dirt. I repeat this process until the bucket is filled nearly to the top. I keep the can well watered and in an area where it gets shade in the late afternoon sun. Don't put a can in the sun. You will get baked potatoes before you can eat them!! When the tops wilt out at the end of the summer I turn the whole can over and pick out my spuds. Note: The potatoes continue to send out fingers of potatoes from the plant as it is covered up with dirt.

I have Minn. black gumbo and I tried the straw/mulch shallow method again. If you grow that way you should almost NEVER hit a potato unless you are digging way too close. Now the little fingerling potatoes do spread enormously under mulch so there you have to be real careful. I will go back to burying deep, approx. six inches, as in the semi-drought the heat got them very early and later on it dried the leaves and straw to crispy state forcing watering often, plus the potatoes then have a far greater tendency to pop-out of the cover and get green. I had a minimum of twelve inches cover the garden with areas sixteen inches deep. Within three months it was rare to have three inches anywhere. In my one garden I often have to chunk off the dirt but the deep planted ones get far larger on average. For some people it seems to work well but is far from the wonder method it is often pushed as. I have found that with this method, especially if you use some other than straw, if you dig the mulch and potato plant debris under in the fall, it does help the soil.