Question Indeterminate potato growth.

[Grandmother Goose]

For those that have grown indeterminate potatoes in something eternally stackable and kept adding stacks and soil as the plant grew, what is the greatest height you've managed to get it to, and is there a point where adding more stacks become pointless?
Alternatively, for those that have grown indeterminate potatoes in the ground and hilled them up, have you ever tried laying the vines along the ground and hilling on top of the vines to see if they'll sprout more potatoes as they grow across the ground, and if so, again, what's the longest distance you've managed to get a vine to sprout spuds and at what point does doing that becomes pointless?

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Following - I'm interested myself!

 

[Grandmother Goose]

Following - I'm interested myself!

I have scoured the internet in every little nook and cranny that I can get access to, and I can't find anything that explains how long a potato vine can get and how many spuds it'll form if given the chance by being buried. Only that it can be done, that's what hilling indeterminate (also called main crop in some places) potatoes is all about, and that stacking systems do work with indeterminate spuds, but nothing about how far either vertically or horizontally a potato hill can go and still produce viable spuds. With thousands of people all over the world growing spuds in every different way possible, how is it that no one has put that specific info online? And if someone has, why can't I find it?

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I've scoured the internet too, and there's a lot of different information, but nothing conclusive. Perhaps the species might change the results also.

I wonder if people mostly stop hilling after a certain point because you would grow the potato out of season, or perhaps the lower bunch would get too old? I'm not sure.

 

[Berkeloid]

I have no experience with growing potatoes but I imagine in most climates the vines die off at harvest time so you would be limited more by the season than by the physical size of the plants.

If you were in a climate where the potato plants could grow all year round I'm inclined to think the limiting factor would be whether you can water the whole stack enough to stop it drying out without it becoming so wet it gets waterlogged.

It might be an interesting experiment you could try! Some people have competitions to grow the largest chilli, maybe you could have a "tallest stack of potatoes" competition!

 

[Grandmother Goose]

Tallest stack of taters contest... I'd potentially be up for that, though I'm yet to see how well they'll grow through the harshness of the summer here. I'll soon be embarking on my first potato growing experience here in containers, so can't really get in on the tallest stack possible just yet, but I was wondering if they could grow through the summer heat here could one taller stack in the future be a better option for me space and water wise, as well as need less seed potatoes to get a good crop, but alas, lack of information about how far a potato plant can potentially be hilled/stacked before the season is done is somewhat lacking.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

You could always try hilling on top of your raised containers
Perhaps by using hay and mesh wiring. Once ready to harvest you take the mesh off and it could collapse... maybe.

 

[Grandmother Goose]

You could always try hilling on top of your raised containers
Perhaps by using hay and mesh wiring. Once ready to harvest you take the mesh off and it could collapse... maybe.

I went spam watching videos about people trying out potato towers of different types, most were about a metre tall, one was quite a bit taller. The general results for most of them seem to be rather poorly, the potatoes grow initially in the bottom of the tower but there's very few higher up, although it does add some more potatoes to the crop, they're all smaller, and the extra soil tends to compress under its own weight and creates a compacted soil situation which isn't good for growing potatoes in, but up to 50-60cm tall seems to do really well for getting more good sized potatoes so long as all other conditions are great for the plant, so I guess that answers my question about growing them vertically. Still curious about horizontal extra hilling though.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Yeah the compression makes sense. Hence me wondering if hilling with a lighter material (like straw) would work. But at the same time, I doubt it'd be worth the hassle. You might be better off growing multiple crops.