I got maybe 5 lbs for two pounds planted in a 4' x 8' bin and am about ready to give up the 'binning' method. I'll try it again with 'regular' hilling and see how it goes.

I don't think you can get the technique down in a season. Reflect on what happened, fix, and go for it again. Your climate should make a bin system a good idea.

Dan

I tried the bin method for three seasons...I reflected...I fixed... and I will never go again

Does not work!

I got 30 pounds of potatoes from 5 plants in my bin - that's 6 pounds per plant. However, I got almost exactly the same amount per plant from the same kind of potatoes (Bintje) done by regular hilling method nearby.

The main difference was that the 5 plants in the bin could fit in the same amount of garden space as did the 3 plants in a regular hilled row. In other words, there were more potatoes produced per square foot in the bin than in the regular hilled row.

The bin was almost 3 feet high but most of the potatoes were found in the bottom foot (but a small handful were more than 18 inches from the bottom.

I'm not ready to give up on the method completely but will probably try a modified hilled method; i.e. only about 18 inches high. My guess is that will maximize the benefit without the work of filling the bin up to 3 feet.

If anyone can recommend a better variety of late potatoes than Bintje, I would be grateful!

Bob

After I wrote the comment above, I recalled that someone (was it Jon Hughes from Oregon?) commented sometime in the spring or early summer that 18" was probably the maximum height for efficient 'binning' or hilling. After that there wouldn't be enough extra potatoes to make it worth the effort. Is that correct? At any rate, my experiment of this summer seems to have confirmed that.

However, I will probably keep experimenting with other varieties. Any suggestions regarding varieties? I used Bintje this year. Any others that might work well?

Thanks

Bob

The "hype" on the bin method suggests 100's of pounds of potatoes per bin. Not going to happen!
A much more productive method is to grow in plastic grow bags (5 or 10 gallon) Less space...cheaper...much easier and more potatoes!
Put 6 inches of dirt in the bag, then seed, cover seed to half full. When the vines reach over the top of the bag, fill with dirt. As the dirt settles, fill bag (once or twice). Harvest time, just dump the bag out. Bags can be moved during the growing season...as your mood strikes

Yeah,
I'm going to try Lonmower's method next year (since we can only use the same dirt once every three years, it seems like a much easier program,and you can just dump the soil into another part of the garden and fill up the bag with new dirt) simple simon ;-)
and yes , "over hilling" doesn't produce enough "extra potatoes" to justify the work. the little red potatoes produce all along the stem, but don't produce sufficient "extra" quantities to make up for additional labor.

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Here is a link that might be useful: Potatoes growing up the stem (away from the seed)