Hey, I just discovered the "Full Screen" option, how cool is that?

OK, I finally put it all together about growing potatoes. Granted there is nothing new here except the theory of operation. Here is how I would have written the directions:

The seed potato sends all sprouts up through the soil and none, if any, downward. As tomato and potato are both in the nightshade family and they behave similarly. Both will sprout roots from the stems if exposed to soil. Since potatoes are a root crop, the roots above the original cut of potato, the more soil you can mound around the stems, the more potatoes you will get.

So, set the original potato wedge as deep as you can. Put it into a hole 12" and cover it with 3" - 4 " of soil. Then as the greenery grows, I remove the bottom leaves and add more soil keeping the highest greenery exposed to sunlight. More growth, remove more bottom leaves, add more soil. For the most part, it does not matter how high the resulting hill is as long as you still have greenery.

Similar to tomatoes, I cage my potato plants. Keeping them vertical gives them more air flow and lets the leaves dry earlier in the morning. There is no benefit to letting them flop all over the bed. Having the branches in an upward position supported by the cage, it is easier to mound the soil.

The high mounds also let you to selectively sneak in there to extract a few potatoes without disturbing the plant.