low yield potatoes

Sevierville, TN(Zone 7a)

I need help!! 3rd year I have tried potatoes, first year small harvest which I expected (new ground), last year bad, this year also bad. Have rotated them. Other crops are doing good. Garden is in tenn clay. rototilled ditches and started to fill with compost (grass,leaves, straw,goat and llama poop,some chicken and duck). I must be missing something- great plants actually falling over some 3ft long, only a few flowers though, soil is loose 1 ft down, water with soaker hose when necessary. went to dig where the vines are dried up (ground is moist 1ft down) Pics are of rows and 15ft of dug area,other show dirt, pail shows yield. row I am digging is yukon gold, to the right is red pontiac,to the left is kennebeck. seed potatoes were ordered from Gurney's. I am doing basic organic gardening, some bugs and beneficials.

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Cascade, VA(Zone 7a)

are you mounding the dirt up around the plants as they get taller? That is how you get the production up, the further up you bury the stems, the dirt covered parts will begin to make roots, and roots = potatoes. Also, if it were me personally, i would keep them a tad bit further away from those tomatoes, as the same blight diseases that hit tomatoes can easy transfer over to your potatoes if they are too close by.

Sevierville, TN(Zone 7a)

jmc1987--I plant in a 1ft x10" deep trench with a 2"layer of compost and cover with dirt-compost mix up to the top and put my soaker hose on top and cover with 4-6"straw. The few I got were in the 6" depth. the ones in the pail some were soft. some split and healed. some had scabs on them. thanks for the comeback.

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