Potato Hilling

There are different potato production techniques being suggested for small gardens. The typical way is to plant your potatoes and hill them later. Sometimes potato greening can be a problem, if they are not hilled properly. An alternate method suggested by Eliot Coleman, is to dig a trench, and cover the potatoes with a thin layer of packed soil, leaving the rest of the trenching soil mounded beside the row. At the normal hilling time, the remaining soil from trenching is pulled into the trench, creating a level soil surface beneath which the potatoes are well buried. We tried this at home and it worked great! We also tried a straw mulch technique where potatoes are only pressed into the soil surface (still exposed) and then covered with a layer of straw or hay. This technique seemed to delay the potatoes, probably because of cooler soil temperature. Our mulch was also initially too thin, which allowed weeds to grow through and become a problem. The crows and gulls also seemed to enjoy searching through the straw for potatoes. We might try this again with potatoes that are pre-sprouted and with thicker straw.