Potatoes, earthing up

Last year I grew tatties in sacks, and just kept earthing up all the way to the top of the sacks. When emptied though..the nearest potato was at least half way down.

I'm growing them in the ground this year and want to know how much I should earth up by, is there a rough set distance from seed potato to final last potato on the stem?

Whats your experience on this?

Steve...

 

I earth up when i plant the potatoes approx 8 -10 in abve ground level find it easier at this stage have attached photo there are five diffferent varieties in this section they are all looking healthy.

 

Well that's an interesting question SteveR and you'll get as many answers as the people you ask.
If you're growing potatoes in the ground there is a limit to how far you can earth up - if you've tried it you'll know what I mean.
If you're growing in containers - well my experience is there is an optimum size - twice the size of container doesn't give twice the crop.
From a bucket I can get 3 - 4 lbs of potatoes, but from a dustbin 6 - 7 lbs. NO CONTEST.
It would be interesting to hear what others have found.

 

I earth up first when about 6-8" tall. I then just keep an eye on them and earth up if I see potatoes near the surface. Prior to my first earthing up I usually sprinkle a bit of fertiliser between the rows and hoe it in so that when I drag the soil over the rows the potatoes get a bit of a feed.
Afraid I can't realy comment with any accuracy on the distance from seed to final potato but at a guess I'd reckon about 9 to 12".