Hilling with grass clippings can be done - you'll find prior discussions here about doing it - but it can be problematic too. Dry ones, not fresh, lightly applied because they mat down, and all that nitrogen can burn the plants. Plus they don't block light nearly as well.

When you know you are going to grow lots of potatoes it pays to lay in a stock of extra soil, some bags of an inexpensive potting mix works well, or some bales of straw. Straw is the ideal mulch for potato hills. But for this year the best bet is to find some more dirt.

I admit to being curious as to why you are just now hilling them? Hilling is normally a spring to early summer activity and many have already harvested their potatoes in our zones.

Dave

Are you saying that instead of breaking my back shoveling the soil up around the stems 2-3 times per season, that I could just put a foot of straw around them one time and omit the back-break hilling 3 times?

This is my 3rd year growing potatoes. The instructions that came with the seed potato said to hill 2 or 3 times during the growing season, but it didnt say when to do it so I just been doing it once per month. Of course planting them down in the furrow helps tremendously with the first hilling, I just push the dirt inward but then I'm out of dirt for next 2 hillings. I'd rather dig graves than buy extra dirt.

I guess you're saying to hill 3 times during early start-up of plants. OK thanks.

My 2007 journal indicated I harvested 3rd week of August. That's this week but I dont see any signs of die back yet.

It is prolly too late to do any hilling but I'm going to do it anyway. I'll have to get down on my hands and knees with a hand shovel to get in between the leggy monsters.

160 feet of potatoes is alot of work for me. And I find during August I slack on the work out in the garden, and I do more harvesting. I get overwhelmed with the potatoes.

"Are you saying that instead of breaking my back shoveling the soil up around the stems 2-3 times per season, that I could just put a foot of straw around them one time and omit the back-break hilling 3 times? "

um ya.

Heres how I did it.

Here is a link that might be useful: no dig (or hilling) potatoes

Yes that is a lot of potatoes to work with also straw works super that was my third hilling after running out of soil that could be eaisily raked over them I laid on a layer of straw and hay

are your potatos showing? if not there is not to much need to go though all that work now

Marial - first you have to determine where the various varieties produce their potatoes. Some only produce 1 layer between the seed level and the soil line, other varieties will tuber further up the stem.

Yukon for example only tuber at the seed level so hilling them a great deal accomplishes little. Russets and Red Pontiac will make tubers farther up the stem too so production - if done at the right time - benefits a great deal from hilling.

Once you get that part then yes, assuming they are trench planted, a 4-6 inch hilling/trench-filling of soil in the spring once they sprout and then a a bit more soil a couple of weeks later topped with a 12" mulching of straw on top is often enough. From then on you need only layer on a bit more straw to keep the tubers from sun exposure. Just lay it out right on top of the plants and they will grow right up through it. No need for back-breaking work.

Suggest you might want to review the great potato growers guide provided by Ronniger's Potatoes.

As to planting time and harvest - next year consider planting much earlier. Mid-March is used by many gardeners in your zone. Often even earlier in late February is possible depending on the weather. 45 degree soil is all they need to kick start.

Dave

I planted on April 18th. Any earlier than that tends to be kind of wet usually to work the soil and frosty here.

Ok we screwed up a little. Fine. No biggie. I'm sure we're gonna have some more potatoes come harvest in a few weeks. Again, no sign of die back yet here.

Hubby cursed his way through another grave digging. I pointed where to throw the soil as I could locate the lgeggy stems penetrating the soil. He cursed more. He sweated more. I pointed more. We argued more. He actually said he doesnt want any more potatoes if this is what potato hilling is like, but he didnt mean it. Just wait til January when we go out to garage to grab 5 great poatoes to cook. He was just overworked in the hot sun. He helped me dig graves to hill all other potato crops in the garden to-date. If it werent for him, there wouldnt be any potatoes.

I better buy some straw next year. I did last year but I kept on hilling anyway, I just covered with straw afterward. I liked the way it made my garden look so clean and orderly and got so many compliments from visitors.

I DID find one yellow finn crop ontop of the soil which of course got covered after about 6" of soil throwing.

What a nightmare! It is what it is.

I ready everyone's info. Must determine where pots grow in reference to soil line. Ok. I did notice the yukons only do one layer no matter how many times I wasted my time hilling them the past 2 yrs. But the fingerlings and yellow finn I'm not sure how they grow yet.

more later......

I would recommend you dig a little hole next year where you plant 'taters. Hill 1 brings the soil level - I hill when weeds show or plants are 6-7 inches tall. Hill 2 when plants begin to blossom.

No need to go digging graves!

I also am trying out the straw "hill" this year. So far not a tremendous yield - but it's still early...

sfallen is right.
You cannot hill if you plant on hill. So you plant in a hole,say 8 inches down, cover 2-3 inches. When the stems are up about 6 inches above level ground, fill the hole around the stems, trying to separate them a little.
When they grow another 6-8 inches, hill them.
You may hill a third time when you see budds. Then you can mulch them to keep them cool and moist.
I prefer to hill with mixture of straw and soil. This way the inground stems stay moist. Of course, this is provided your garden soil is well amended and it is not clay.

I have heard stories of people who grow potatoes in stacks of 3, 4, or more tires with the impression that they can get more tubers. NOT SO. A potato vine has a limited resource dictated by its root system that can produce up to a certain amount of tubers. When you keep hilling and adding more stacks of tires , the vine struggles to get higher and higher.
So the point is that hilling has a purpose and limit. beyond that it does not do any good.

marial214 I'm laughing my butt off!! You sound like me and my husband! I point and he digs, he curses, and boy does he sweat! I'm lucky though as mine is from Ireland and and life without potatoes is not possible. I had never grown potatoes before and for some reason couldn't get my head around it. But once I started to harvest some and saw how they grew, it made sense. We dug a deep trench (12inches) so hilling 2xs wasn't that hard, then used straw. Next year I am going to try joe-il's idea, that seems like a peice of cake. And Dave as usual, I always learn when I read your posts. I kept wondering why there were no potaotes on the stems, why bother hilling? Now I know. Maybe some of the others have potatoes on the stems, am waiting for a bit to harvest the rest.

Gardener1908, yes both of these guys have great ideas. I have to read over and over and take some more notes because it's like greek to me. It would be easier to see their potato rows than to read about how to do it.

The first couple years I didnt have that much potatoes so I did all the hilling myself and I had enough dirt for all of them. He got so excited when he saw the harvest.

This year I went over the top with how many I planted so I had to ask for help in digging dirt. When you ask for somebody's help sometimes, it's on their time not yours so I had to wait until he was in the mood. Hubby do this, hubby do that..........LOL

Yesterday I noticed an infestation of flying ant thingies on the one plant. Some crawly ones and some on the top leaves had white wings. On the plant near the end of the row, I pulled up a test plant and found tons of tiny larvae worms on the mushy potato. I had to dig it up because the foliage was dead. The end 3 plants are like that--dead. The others are healthy. We have had major rain here this season.

Any ideas what they are without posting a pic?

Hi All, this year I had two potato patches. One at home that the soil test results said nothing needed, and a borrowed neighbors field that had been fallow since 1965. The field lays wet every year until about the end of May till it dries down. The soil test came back deficient in everything except manganese. The field received 10-10-10 and gypsum. The home patch got trenched while the field only got shallow tilled and taters planted just into the top three inches of dirt.
I spent one hundred twenty bucks just on 'spoiled' hay from a farmer to hill the field taters.
I learned a lot from these two different methods. Most taters in the field drowned from to much rain. The survivors made it all worth the effort. Red Pontiac withstood the rain the best, most all the different whites perished.
On average the taters hilled with hay per plant gave much larger and outnumbered the taters hilled at home with dirt. At least two to one. On average the home taters came in at five lbs. per plant versus ten lbs per plant with hay.
The plan for next year is for the home garden is to trench and plant the taters with dirt. Once started for the first hilling I will use hay with a light coating of soil. Then the second hilling with hay again and another light coating of soil. The soil removed to make the trenches should give me about one foot and a half for hill purposes.
The expense for hay was due to poor planning. This year there is much spoiled hay due to the rain. So I called several farmers looking for free hay. I hit the jackpot with one farmer who gave me over two hundred bales. Just I had to load and pickup.
For the field I am tilling several new rows and each row is getting the bales lined up intact to rot in place for next year. Hopefully next year I can spread the rotted hay down the middle to plant and move it back in for hilling.
This is my plan for next year. I will see how well that works and let everybody know. Best regards to all.