Tater mounding - how high can you go?

I built a cedar box around my taters to keep the mounded soil from spilling over into the rest of the garden and making a mess. First year growing these babies so am a bit concerned I'm approaching this the wrong way.

Is the box a bad idea? Anyone have some guidance as far as how high I should go? Those boards are 5.5" tall and you can see the plants are a good 10" or so taller than the 11" top now. I'm thinking of putting another ring of boards on and filling in with soil again....

Thanks in advance!
Bryan

Looks great to me, Bryan! Nice looking bed, nice looking plants!

You can go as high as the plants allow, preferably always keeping at least 6 inches of foliage exposed to the sun at all times. That will give them enough topgrowth to absorb the sun's energy (photosynthesis). If you've fed your plants well and the weather cooperates you could quite possibly have a bumper crop of spuds. (The type of tater and their food source will also be a factor.)

You'll do fine raising the bed another five inches.

Hope you check back in and let us know how your garden grows!

Shoe

I plant my potatoes in raised beds, with wood sides, sort of like what you have there. I grow my garden on my sloping back yard, so the beds are sort of cut into the slope. I had good results with making furrows, put the seed potato, and then a few inches of soil. Let the spuds grow, then fill in the furrows with soil. Any growth above that, gets covered with straw. Works great and the straw is a lot easier to move around than lots of hilled soil. Also less soil to deal with when you dig your spuds. The straw can get smushed down over time and rain, so you may have to add a little more eventually. So back to your original question, I think the box is great!

Update: I did add another row of cedar boards to my potato "house" and here's what they look like now. They're so overgrown it's hared to even see the boards anymore! The Zuchinni are also a bit out of control - need to give them more room next year..

I couldn't stand the suspense anymore after I noticed a chipmunk had burrowed underneath the boards and was living inside the container. I went to bed at night with nightmares of a tiny little chipmunk laying on his back munching my Red Norlands while I was waiting for the vines to die back. So.....I dug down from the top, without removing any boards and look what surprise I found! Hooray!

(the watch is for scale)

OOO I wish I was you lol. What a good job you did. And I was abot to have a fit to see what was under there, so glad you checked. Nice looking garden you have all around.

Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!

I need to get more straw.

Got one batch of baby new reds, but no fingerlings starting yet.

I too am growing potatoes for the first time. I couldn't find seed potatoes here in Hawaii, so I used organic potatoes from the health food store (Reds, Idaho Russets and Yukon Golds). The first plants of the red potatoes are beginning to die back. Is this normal or is something bad happening? When do I harvest?
Thanks for your help.

Guavagirl when they start to die back they are finished. They don't like really hot weather and that always does them in here. That's a great idea for a seed source. I can't stand paying postage for them. Thank you.

I've caught 3 ground squirrels in 3 days but now I've got a new problem with my taters. Japanese Beetles are devouring the foliage on my tater plants. I've used Sevin successfully on my trees in the last few weeks and once a few weeks back on the taters. With my vines getting very close to dying back, I don't think it's a good idea to use Sevin on them now. Anyone have experience here this close to harvest time?

Reporting back on this little tater experiment of mine... I decided it was time to start harvesting my Red Norlands since the Japanese Beetles were decimating the foliage and I didn't want to apply any more Sevin this close to harvest time. So I unscrewed the cedar boards on one side of my tater box and here's the view...2 nice plump ones pressed right up against the side boards there....

So I start digging out one of the corners to see how things are looking. Here's what I was able to dig out before the mosquitoes covered me in welts... This represents only about 1/10 of the space my tater box covers and it's looking very good so far, can't wait to see how many more are buried in here!

I like that side view. Isn't it fun to dig for spuds?

Beautiful! And nice black dirt there in that box :) I'm still mounding mine, have several different experiments going; tires, containers, buckets. I have about 30 potential producers, so hopefully I'll have some nice spuds. I have no idea what varieties they are...haha! Some were organic taters that sprouted and some were given to me by Darius. So it will be a surprise too :)

congratulations, and what a nice setup.

i am planting fingerlings this fall and i have recruited my honey to build a box for my fingerlings. did you have to put up only two (2) boards 5.5"?

I appreciate all ya'lls pictures and info. I planted 3 75' rows of yukon gold last year, they all rotted in the ground the first two weeks. Never seen that much rain before. Did not do a garden in 2008, thinking about 2009 but not sure.
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Plant-Potatoes-Successfully&id=1379496

You might want to try this system. In the spring get an area the size of you container worked up including your compost and fertilizer. Plant your potato eyes at the regular depth in your bed. I have not used boards to containe the growing plants I have use a piece of 4ft tall wire fence long enough to make about a 4ft diameter bed. As the vines grow add straw instead of soil. Continue adding the straw until you get close to the top of your wire container. Let the vines do what they want to from that point. When it's time to harvest I remove the wire fence and dig through the straw to havest nice clean potatoes that never grew in soil. I first learned of this system in the late 70's or early 80's and it is the only meathod I'v used since then. I have no idea were I got the information. I would like to thank that gardener.

Thanks for the info. I brung in 15 4cy heaping trailer loads of almost completely composted horse manure to add nutrients and fill the not so obvious low area of my garden. Looks flat to me but when we recieved record rains, I could see better. Previous years could not get enough rain and never even had a puddle. I saw the straw method somewhere before. I appreciate it.

I use the straw method with the wire fencing too. It's a great solution for those of us with drainage problems.