Hi marti - are you sure it was on this forum? There are many discussions on growing potatoes over on the Vegetable gardening forum - some running right now with links to many others and many with pictures that search pulls up.

Trenching potatoes is the most common way to grow them. ;) Just dig a 6-8" deep trench, set in the seed potatoes and lightly cover. As the plants grow you just keep hilling up the dirt around the plants until mounds are approximately 12-14" tall.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Potatoes

Yes, a ditch or trench. I tried the 'layering' method and got very poor results, even though the green foliage grew very well.

How deep should the tubers be under the soil?

I was not able to grow in straw either - but have quite a few plants doing well in my planter boxes. I dug down to the bottom of the box, laid the sprouted potato in and tossed on a handful of soil. As it grew, I added more compost to the top rim of the box. This allowed coverage to about 12 inches. They look fine although time will tell how much yield will be forthcoming.

Should I put up side boards on the planter box so more of the top shoots can be covered with soil? The above-ground foliage is about 8 inch tall now.

I saw something similar on the Vegetable Forum -

Bejay

I do what bejay did all the time. If I have potatoes that sprout, in the ground they go. I usually try to put the sprouted potato down in the ground about 6". I've tried trenching, but didn't get any more potatoes then the way I just described.

digdirt, I'm not sure which forum it was on, but I searched them all the other day.

But this link in the links you posted has almost the same thing, the link I was looking for was someone else's website, not just pics in the posting. But this is good enough, has the info I wanted & best of all pics. Thank you!

Here is a link that might be useful: Potatoes in the trench

Yes, plant at least 6 inches down. Straw piled on top, is the same as what I did here. I tried going up about 30 inches and buried some of the leaves with alternating straw and soil as they grew taller. After opening the 'bins', found only about 10 potatoes, all quite small. If, while growing, you see any of them showing up on the surface, be sure to cover them immediately as if they get sunlight and turn green, they can make you sick. I like fingerlings and red skins the best.