I've never understood the fascination of putting $10+ of soil in a container in order to produce $5 worth of potatoes, myself.

Maybe if you're growing some very high end fingerlings, you can get access to bulk soil for cheap, and/or your native soil is compacted or otherwise trashy for potatoes.

Some people don't have much choice (high water table)and have to grow in containers. Will soon be posting some pictures of our container potato harvest. Paid about $40/yd for pine bark/peat/perlite mix, and it's reusable. Planted about 6lbs of seed potatoes, and will have at least 80 pounds of potatoes. Stay tuned for photos....first bin will be harvested Wednesday.

I have been growing potatoes BOTH hilled in the garden and also in containers
This year I started one container in my small greenhouse early (February) and then moved it outside when the weather moderated. I got a very successful EARLY harvest from this container. The other containers are scattered on the edges of my garden. The soil mix in them is 50% compost and 50% sand with some pearlite mixed in. No fertilizer is added and I make sure they are evenly watered throughout the hot months. When they die back and it is time to harvest I just move them to the compost pile and dump them out and it is so easy to harvest. Fun way to supplement the potato crop!

This is the smallest bin, probably around 10 gallons. Planted less then 1 lb of Alpine russet potatoes, and got 6.6 lbs. They wouldn't die, so just cut the tops off and harvested. They were growing for 4+ months.

Planting potatoes , in containers, as long season crop is a bigger problem where you have hot summer. The reason is that when the soil temps reach and exceed about 70-75F, the plant will shut down, even when it has healthy foliage. So this condition can be further worsen in container planting, since the soil heat up quicker, as opposed in ground condition. So, maybe it is OK somewhere in NY state but certainly wont work well in GA.

I surrounded the outsides of my containers and bags with several inches of straw to keep the sun off. Also so the moisture in the fabric bags wouldn't dry out too quickly. Of course this summer that wasn't a problem.

How big are those russets, edweather? Hard to get a sense of the scale there.

Yeah, Can definitely see where container potatoes might be a problem in southern zones in the summer.......but what about in the cooler time of year?

ltilton, they aren't that big. The biggest is 6" and kind of skinny. I think I remember that you were trying to find a large baking russet. Actually we harvested these early (for us) just to get some eating potatoes. Last year we let them grow for 6 months, and they were bigger, but kind of scabby. So this year we were looking for smaller with better skins. Still have 3 other containers that will let grow longer and see how it goes. Haven't been able to grow the big baking russets in containers. We did plant 1 potato in the ground and it has grown into a huge plant. Can't wait too see how big those potatoes are, but will wait until it dies back before digging.

Yeah. Mine look great this year, just the right shape, sound as dollars. But not big. I've left most of them in the bed to get as much growth as they can, but I fear that the drawback of the straw method may be in size and yield.

In the southern zones , You have to plant them real early. Like in GA, I use to plant them 4 to 6 weeks before last frost and would dig them sometimes in july. That would like 110 days or so. Then you can also do a fall planting, Like late July.

Climate is a limitation, fersure. But then, it presents a challenge!