How do you hill or mulch your potatoes?

[wilburn cox]

I live in Stephenville TX. This is about 65 miles South of Ft. Worth. We have 4 acres and I have a small garden where I plant potatoes, squash, tomatoes and peppers.
My first year growing potatoes I hilled them by dragging soil up around the plants and had very poor results. I have lots of oak trees and a chipper/shredder so last year I shredded lots of leaves and hilled the potatoes with these. I laid the seed potatoes in a shallow trench and as they grew I just kept piling on the shredded leaves. This gave me a good yield.
Any suggestions for growing potatoes in Central Texas will be appreciated. I have better results with red potatoes for some reason.
Thanks in advance and have a fantastic day. Wilburn "Red" Cox

 

[Bulldog777]

I harvested 305lbs of red potatoes in the spring. I planted 35lbs. We have loam soil and I use a row builder to plant in rows. When the potatoes get about 8in high, I side dress with 13-13-13 and use the row builder to pull dirt to them, actually almost covering them. I cover them 2 to 3 times this way. Luv me sum taters!

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[skeets]

Up here in the coal country, I just run a shallow ditch and then cover with good compost and add when the stems get a couple inches high, till theres about 6 or 8 inches of compost. And I leave it be. Others do like you do trench and cover then row them and it works, I would however add that amending your dirt is always the first step to good growth. Also find your county agent and have the soil tested, you might be surprised what you may or may not need to bring it into line with what you want to do with it.

Good rotted compost works best you might need to add some lime to those oak leaves, and find someone that will let you have a couple loads of cow or horse manure to let cook for a year,,, grass clipping, leaves, egg shells, any and everything EXCEPT meats fats bones ect goes on the pile.. If you can go brown stuff , covered by green stuff covered by brown stuff, and a spritz of water once in awhile to keep the pile working. And if you have a bud that fishes,, ask if you can have what ever worms he has left over and put them in the pile too. Then toss the pile a couple times and pile it back up. It should have a rich earthy smell if it smells yucky like rotting stuff its way to wet spread it out and let it ll dry up then pile it back up. This is just my way tons of other way for compost. And when its done and you plow or till up the ground make sure you till a bunch of your compost in. That will make a world of difference

 

[Creature Meadow]

I cut a trench about 6" deep plant taters and cover with bedder.

Once they break through I fertilizer with 3-6-6 and run bedder to cover most of plant.

As they grow I fertilize again and hill them with bedder to cover most of plant.

When they bloom I pull off blooms and hill the last time, seed taters now about a foot below ground.

I dig into fur when it is time to see if they are ready.

Time to harvest, I pull plant and put in trailer, carry to chicken pen and remove taters and toss tops into pen.

I run tater plow down each row to get what did not come up when the plant was pulled.

I yield about a 5 gallon bucket per 50' using this method.

We store taters under barn on a aluminum rack elevated off ground about 6", allows air to flow around taters.

We eat them till December then they turn soft but most are eaten or given away by then.

I test my soil every 2 years so my fertilizer choice is based on that.

I also spray with compost tea I make 3 times while they are growing.