Quick question for you: This is my third year growing potatoes in my vegetable garden. Every year I am baffled by the hilling instructions "as plants grow, mound dirt up around them being careful not to cover the leaves"

How do you NOT cover the leaves when hilling them up? I am misunderstanding this? I mean, as soon as the potatoes start coming up and growing, there are always leaves on the stalks as low as ground level...how am I supposed to hill them without covering any leaves?

Or do they mean not to cover all of the leaves at the top of the plant?

I always just mound dirt up around the bases, leaves and all, about 3 or 4 times, until I get a nice big hill around each potato, and then switch to straw. I haven't had problems, but every year I am reminded of how confusing I find those instructions.

This is probably incredibly obvious and I'm over thinking it, as tends to happen ;)

TIA! Andrea

Not everyone can go that deep in early spring...where rains are more frequent.

Yes that is what they mean. Although even if you do - which many of us do - they grow right back up through it.

I disagree that hilling isn't important or isn't needed but there also isn't any need to make it over-complicated or get too detailed. The primary purpose is to keep the developing potatoes themselves (not the plant) protected from sun exposure.

Dave

As you you this filling thing (twice or thrice), eventually the furrow becomes a continuous hill. That is what hilling is about.
Your seed potato grows roots sideways and downward where you put it down. The buried stems grow stalons on which then grows the tubers . We hill to have a longer stem in the ground and also protect the tubers from light AND to keep them cooler.

That is true. In some (rare) cases, our lack of water can be useful.