Never planted them in wide rows just because of that problem - difficult to do any hilling - not to mention the increased difficulty and damage done when it comes to digging them up..

I guess you would have to bring additional materials to hill around them rather than using the soil on the sides of the rows. Maybe mulch the whole wide row well with thick layer of straw or bring in soil from somewhere else to mound around each individual plant by hand.

Dave

It is not difficult on a large scale. Typically 36 inch rows. In a small garden, An old wheel hoe with a moldboard does a nice job. Or you can use a gooseneck hoe. In the field, a tracter mounted cultivator with wings (small moldboards) is used. On a small scale, harvest with a potato hook, larger scale plow them out with middlebuster, commercially a potato harvester.

Here is a link that might be useful: potato harvestor

Now I had to look up "potato hook" cause I'd never heard of it.

You learn something new ...

I plant potatoes as double row on the 4' wide bed. Instead of hilling I use trench technique. I dig two trenches about 12'' deep along the bed with 24 inches between centers of the trenches . I hill the soil I dig out in three rows - one on the each side of the bed and one in the middle. I place potatoes on the bottom of the trench with 12 inches interval and cover it with about 3 inches of soil. As soon as plants show up through the soil, I add more soil from the sides and the middle to almost cover all leaves with the soil. You continue this process until all the soil is flat on the bed. I plant red pontiac and I am getting about 12-15 large fist size potatoes from a plant, but I do not dig them out at once, I use hands to get big potatoes from the bottom, and let the rest of them grow more... 10 X 4 bed give me enough potatoes for two from July to end of August.

galinas, I would not dare plant 12 inches deep here...with a 2 inch rain and then a 1 inch rain in a few days even with good draining soil here. I remember last year it was so wet after planting potatoes that I uncovered them almost completely to dry things out. I agree that those Pontiac Reds can grow to a really nice size.

The thing is - my raised bed is 12 inches. So I kind of plant it in the normal soil level, also, soil in my bed is pretty light and drain well. For heavy soil it really can be a water trap, agree. But we suffer more from lack of water for potatoes in summer anyway.

I plant almost identically to galinas, though my potatoes go in at 6-8 inches deep.

I don't understand the problem. Why are wide rows difficult to hill? It is quite the opposite IME.

The best harvest I got (limited number of years here, though) was when I did a double row- 3 ft wide rows so I think the trenches were 12" in and apart from each other, then I laid out the seed pieces in a staggered fashion so no plants were parallel. I also use the trench method, about 6-8" deep. I can alway hoe a little extra in from the paths if need be, and I mulch with straw once the heat hits.

I'm trying to figure out why 'double' rows might do well. I do believe in planting 5 or 6 inches deep and getting into cooler soil...if soil permits. The only advantage of a 'double' row would seem to me the wider shading that cools the soil better. Even then the seed pieces would need to be spaced out well to give larger potatoes...my interest.

Wayne, for me the double row is being used to maximize space and because I plan to cover the double rows with fabric later. Of course, I still need to get my second row in, hopefully that will happen this weekend.

Pat -- I realized from your response and that from farmerdill that I wasn't clear enough.

I've seen photos on another thread in which it looks like they block planted potatoes -- maybe 3 across a 4 foot wide bed. So, not in rows, but across a wide garden row.

I want to plant one row of early potatoes, and what I have available now is a wide row (about 3 1/2 feet wide) so I wanted to try that block planting method if I could figure it out. From what I read the aforementioned thread, and it sounds like people who block plant do a combination of trench method or just no hilling (or they didn't say -- that's why I was fishing for more info here!)

However, I will probably do the double row that folks have described above. It makes sense, and I *can* see how you can hill them. I'll just prep a longer section of the bed so I've got room for all of the seed pieces.

Thanks for the help!

Was just going to ask what you mean by wide-row planting. :)

I assumed in my first post that you were talking about exactly what you now describe - Wide-row gardening, a defined method that is very popular with those of us with large in-ground beds. It is a BIG acreage garden method of growing not normally associated with raised beds or small backyard gardens although I'm sure some try it.

Normally that means 4' wide slightly raised mounds of soil 50-100' long (depending on the crop) and the plants are stagger or scatter planted in a wide band the entire width of the wide-row. Planted all over that bed, not in rows - if you follow me.

Double row planting is something else entirely.

So as I said above, potatoes are not usually considered a wide-row crop because of the difficulty with hilling and harvesting. I'm not saying it can't be done. You can always heavily mulch the whole 4' wide row.

Or you could plant 2 defined rows along the outside edges in a 4' wide-row and hill both from the center but that wouldn't be wide-row gardening. Or you could trench them in and don't worry about hilling (depending on the variety) but then you are also losing the advantages of wide-row gardening

Hope this clarifies.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Wide row gardening images

Yes, thanks for clarifying -- that is exactly what I meant.

I decided to do two defined rows within the wide bed, and hill from sides and center. Since these are potatoes to eat "new" in June (Yukon Red Gold -- 60 days to maturity) I'm hoping that hilling once and then mulching will work.

A toast to Dick Raymond! (who never meant for potatoes to be grown in wide rows anyway :) )

Ok, thanks for clarifying.

It seems to me that if one is going to plant seed pieces close together or haphazardly enough that hilling is difficult then thick mulch is the answer.

The year I did a small patch I just used straw and put about 12" on a couple of times, since it sort of shrinks after awhile.