when do you hill potatoes?

[purslaine]

When do you hill potatoes?

TIA,

Kathy

[rhianna813]

I think you just keep piling the dirt on top of the growing plant. It will keep growing up towards the sun.

Rhianna

[Niamh]

nak

continuously for the first few weeks. every time it breaks the surface. i go down the row, hillling as i go about 3 times a week.

[purslaine]

Wow.  Thanks.  My lack of hilling may explain my low yield last year.  I will get dirt tomorrow and hill a few times.

[kdaisy]

Is it ever too late to hill? 

I haven't for lack of soil/compost, and my plants are nearly 2 feet tall now, and one has a blossom.  Can I still benefit from hilling?

[Hykue]

I actually don't at all.  I'm too lazy.  I just plant really deep to begin with.  And we get a pretty good yield every year.  There usually are a few near the surface that turn green, so if I were to hill at all I would add a thin layer right around when the plants flowered - that's when they start forming tubers, or so my gardening books tell me.  I also hear that you can just use straw or hay (grass clippings might be too nitrogenous, though) on top of the ground.