A book said to pile more soil on when the shoot exposed is 8 inches tall so that what is left above the soil is about 4 inches... The main shoot is now about 12 inches above the soil... but the side shoot is quite a bit shorter... If I pile even 6 inches of new soil on the side shoot will be entirely covered... I have this plant from a whole mother potato inside a milk crate with holey garbabe bag and pebbles... so the space underneath is not unlimited like in the ground... Any suggestion as to how much soil to add ? Many thanks !!
You can just add the soil a couple of inches at a time as the plant grows, if you prefer. When I grow potatoes in containers I just add a bit extra soil every so often until eventually I reach the top.
Good Morning Anne, The only reason why they recommend hilling is to prevent light from reaching the tubers. Light turns the spuds green and increase the alkaloid content to the point of being poisoneous. From your illustration, I'll just cover the top with a black plastic sheet. Watering may be a problem. If you make a small hole in the plastic and insert an uncapped 2 litre bottle with its bottom removed, you can just fill the bottle with water and solve the problem of watering. Peace Thean
Hi, maf and Thean, Thank you very much for your pointers... I guess I'll just keep watching them and add as I can... That book (from some lady in Alberta) said that besides preventing greening, the additional soil also entices the nodes on the stem to send out more roots, which hopefully, turns into potato... I did notices tiny air root-type coming out of nodes, which I promptly covered up with soil... Whether it worked to give me rings of potato in layers... I'll find out in September !! Thanks again !!
