How do I grow potatoes?
We planted small multi-colored potatoes which are just starting to blossom. What method do you recommend from the blossom stage? We don't really understand when or how to bank dirt or mulch around the growing plants, or even if that is what we should do. In the past we have raised delicious potatoes but the potato patch looks awful by the end with hugh, weepy vines in piles. Is this the way things are supposed to go? 6/16/2008
Answer
When you plant potatoes it is a good idea to dig a trench about six inches deep, drop in the seed potatoes and just cover them. As they grow, you pull the soil up from the sides over the trench. Adding some granular fertilizer will help. Eventually you will be mounding the soil up against the stems. They do look awful when they get mature. They just flop around and start drying up. That's normal. At the flowering stage, potatoes tubers are beginning to grow. There is nothing to do. Just keep them watered. See this series on YouTube on growing potatoes.