Hi Scot,
Leave them, works great ;-)

{{gwi:50287}}

{{gwi:50291}}

I see you didn't cut the seed potatoes, does it work just as well to leave them whole? Why does some advice say to cut out the separate eyes?

Do you use the method of continuous covering of the shoots with more and more dirt as they grow upwards?

Leave the long shoots. Cutting them off just sets the whole thing back, and makes it use more of its stored energy resources to grow new ones -- those new shoots will be "wimpy" compared to the original ones. I've planted potatoes with shoots foot long -- just gently wind them up and push into the hole.

The reason for cutting seed potatoes is not horticultural, its economic -- its to reduce the cost of seed per area planted. A large potato can be cut into several smaller pieces. Taken to the extreme, some mail order nurseries sell little plugs from around an eye. I personally dislike the entire practice -- cutting does increase the risk of rot and loss, albeit not by much when done properly. But, I also think that the smaller the piece, the weaker the resulting plant. Once again, this is a fairly arguable point, and there are many other factors involved aside from the size of the seed piece.

My preference is to pick out seed potatoes that are a "medium" sized example of their variety - not the smallest, wimpy ones and not the large ones that need to be cut. Since the feed stores where I get seed potatoes offer them for sale in bulk bins, its easy to pick through there and select the size I want. I also got lucky this year and found a large quantity of dirt cheap grocery store sprouted potatoes that I used for seed -- these were very large potatoes, but I planted whole to avoid rot and because the price wasn't a factor -- they were 10 cents a pound on the clearance rack of the produce department, so I could afford to plant whole.

Dennis nailed it ;-)

For the backyard gardener, cutting makes very little sense, there is only a few dollars worth of product, chuck them in there whole and stand back and prepare to be blessed ;-)

Watch my "Hilling" video for the answers to your other questions, I address those concerns as well as "a picture is worth a thousand words"

Here is a link that might be useful: Hilling Potatoes

I've found that the more eyes, the smaller the tater's, at harvest time.

I always plant mine with small eye sprouts & have never had a problem.

Seems the rabbits have had a change of taste buds. They've pruned almost every one of my taters, a few days after they had their leaves up. In all the years I've planted taters, I've never had anything even attempt to eat them. I, for sure, never thought a rabbit would, but...I caught it, red handed. The ones that it hasn't gotten, I've put a cage around. I go out twice a day to see if any of the pruned ones have poked thru the soil, again...NOPE!

TATER ANTLERS; opinions welcome

Tater Antler's !