Back in February and early March, I planted a bunch of potatoes in 3/4 high, plastic, 55 gallon barrels of mostly composted rabbit manure. There are lots of exposed potatoes. The plants are green and vigorous. I'm sure burying the exposed potatoes will help with the chlorophyll in them. Will I also get more potatoes to develop further up the stems still?

They have not yet flowered.

Keith

you don't need to hill them , you could cover them with straw or just about any thing to keep the sun off them

no potatoes really don't grow much more up the stem

look at growing potatoes in hay

at this point you could go bag some grass clippings shake them on around your potatoes a few inches deep and be good

I think its too late to do any good. Im done hilling by the time the plant is 12-16 inches tall. Theres a potato whisperer on Tman, hopefully he chimes in.....

I do a six inch furrow, seed potato, cover with a few inches of dirt. With plant reaches six inches I hill until only the tips are showing. Repeat when they hit six inches again. And a third and last time when they reach six inches..

Lay them by until the tops die back.

This gives you a foot to foot and a half of plant to produce and a equal sized hill to hold them.

Potatoes make roots ABOVE the seed potato so you need to be johny on the spot hilling when needed.

Sweet potatoes are the opposite making roots below the slip. So they need to be planted in pre-made hills.

I plant in 42” wide rows, 6 inches deep. Hoe up twice, apply fertilizer both times. Gonna have really nice potatoes this year. Planted on April 8th. Been scratching around, getting some new potatoes this week. Potatoes below celery in raised bed.

Yup, side dress each hilling.

And hit it with spinosad at the first sign of potato bugs. I hate potato bugs.

I'm glad Warrior mentioned spinosads. A much better alternative to some of the stronger chemicals out there. Spinosads are permitted in organic farming and are harmless to mammals. They are a synthetic version of a natural insecticide produced by a subterranean bacterium. It breaks down within a couple of days and leaves no residue.

Safer for my bees. I apply at dusk.

Sevin is banned on my property.

Thanks to everyone who responded.

Keith

Do you have a personal reason for that, other than what the MSM says about it? We used to have 2 bee hives in our yard, and I used Seven and never saw an ill affect with the bees. I would try to spray just before dark, if that makes any difference.

I hilled a few plants the other day that I could see spuds exposed. I hilled a month ago but should have done it more often just was busy. Not sure if it will help or not.

I think you need to hill as growth occurs don't believe it will do much good now. Just my 2¢.

Sevin is most commonly available as a dust and dusts are prone to drift, particularly if any breeze. So no dusts of any type for me. I want any pesticide to be targeted to the problem. Also since bees generate an electrostatic charge in flight that helps pollen cling dusts can do the same.

But mainly because Sevin is a broad spectrum insecticide with a longer life before breaking down it poses a greater risk.

I'm not singling out sevin for any reason other than I choose pesticides for specific limited targets and pinpoint use.

I don’t use Sevin on my potatoes. I have some hives at camp that are less than 100 feet from the edge of the garden. But I can honestly say that in all the years of gardening here, I’ve never seen my bees work potato blossoms. Could be that’s because they are working something more desirable. Same thing here with fruit trees. I have 32 apple/ pear trees there, never a honey bee on blossoms. Lots of other pollinators working them….honeybees seem to prefer hitting on dandelion that is always out the same time as the fruit trees blossom.