How to Grow Potatoes, Including the Hilling Everyone Skips

Chitting, planting depth, and why mounding soil up the stems is what actually decides your yield.

The steps

1. Use Seed Potatoes. Buy certified seed potatoes. Shop ones may carry disease.
2. Chit Them First. Sprout them in a light place. Short green shoots, not long.
3. After the Frost. Frost kills new shoots. Plant when soil warms.
4. Plant Deep. About a hand’s depth. Eyes facing upward.
5. Hill as They Grow. Mound soil up the stems. More stem, more tubers.
6. Keep Them Covered. Light turns tubers green. Green potatoes are toxic.
7. Water Steadily. Most needed while flowering. Erratic water splits tubers.
8. Harvest by Type. New potatoes after flowering. Maincrop once tops die back.

Pro tip. Tubers form along the buried stem, not below the roots. Every time you mound soil up a growing plant you add more stem for potatoes to form on, which is why hilling matters more than feeding.