OK I am going to jump in here. I am not using 5 gallon buckets but 18 gallon Rubbermaid containers for some of my potatoes. Some of my potatoes are in the ground in a 12 inch deep bed with leaves on top. The Rubbermaid containers are about the same height as the 5 gallon buckets. I set the seed potatoes out until they got some sprouts. I used a sodder pencil to burn holes in the bottom of the containers and on the inside I put some fiberglass window screen in the bottom so the potting mix will not drain out. I put 6 inches of soiless potting mix in the bottom. I mixed HollyTone fertilizer (4 tablespoons) in the potting mix and also 2 cups of worm castings. I put 3 seed potatoes on top of the potting mix and then covered the entire thing with dry leaves from my yard. Approx 12 inches of leaves. The potting mix I used is Miracle Grow. As long as you put about 4-6 inches of a good quality potting mix in the bottom of your 5 gallon bucket and maybe 2 seed potatoes per bucket you should be OK. Straw sounds OK to me. If you want really small potatoes use 3 seed potatoes. I want huge potatoes that is why I only used three in the 18 gallon Rubbermaid. I like Ronninger's Potato Farm for seed potatoes. I planted Maris Piper, Bintje, Yukon Gold and All Blue. The Maris Piper and Bintje are for frying. Yukon Gold is all purpose and All Blue is for my grandson. Cheers, DL

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.

I grew 70 row feet of potatoes last year. 2/3 were Yukon Gold, 1/3 were Russett Burbank. The Russett Burbanks were grown in traditional hilling fashion, using soil from the garden. 1/3 of the Yukons were grown in traditional hilling fashion using garden soil, 1/3 grown in traditional hilling fashion using screened topsoil, and 1/3 were grown using wheat straw to a depth of 8"-10". The results, from best to worse: Yukon Gold - Screened topsoil hills Yukon Gold - Garden Soil Burbank - Garden Soil Yukon Gold - Straw I was very, very disapointed with the results of the straw mulch. The size of the these potatoes were just as large as the screened topsoil ones, and even larger than the garden soil hills. However, the damages caused by slugs, snails and rodents (never determined if it was mice, moles, squirels, racoons, or all of the above) was substantial enough to lead to 50-65% losses. Of the remainders, about 15% were lost due to greening. Perhaps your results may be better, but it really cemented my approach to potatoes. Remember that potatoes can grow fairly well in almost any soil, and the soil that is used to hill them need only be screened to remove stones. If you screen some of the existing soil, or have some brought in, I think they would grow just fine. Michael

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