Planting potatoes - I need some expert advice

Potatoes need planting in a deep ridge of loose soil covered with at least 6 inches of soil for early varieties 8 inches for main crop allow at least 30inches between ridges. You can grow earlies in a large container or a grow bag, make sure there are drainage holes for excess water to escape. Potatoes need very fertile soil either compost or added fertilizer, they don’t mind which.

I cannot recommend growing main crop unless you are an expert, the risk of disease is very high and growers need to spray them every 2 weeks or less over a long growing season.

Tbh we grew earlies, second earlies and main crop.

The issue with main crop is of course blight, but in a dry summer you should be ok and even if you are unlucky enough to get blight if you are on the ball you just need to to cut off the tops and get rid of them. Not in your compost although I think the council compost is ok as they can maintain much greater heat.

Your potatoes will happily sit it the ground until you want to harvest them. In fact my grandfather always stored them in a clamp, which was very successful.

I miss my allotment☹️

See the film 'The Martian'

We plant ours initially to cover the potato plus about 2 inches, after the roots are approx 1 inch or so, when a green shoot appears above te soil cover it, keep doing it , carefully don’t knock the leaves off, you will end up with a ridge about 8 inches high, ours are in tubs, so no ridge, we just cover it level, we then leave ours until after flowering.
There are many videos on YouTube , some people put them in a container and fill it with soil immediately, but I’ve not seen what crop, if any, they get.my Mum used to plant some in September and had some at Christmas, but she lived near the coast so warmer than us so I haven’t tried it yet.

Thanks everyone, for the potatoe growing tips. I appreciate you taking the time to give me some good advice.
I have fairly good soil, but alkaline.
My problem last year was I let the sprouts get too long before planting.

I grow in potato bags. You put them in the bottom with a few inches of compost, cover with more compost. When shoots appear you continue to cover until you get to the top. I imagine you could put a couple in the bottom of a bucket or similar container. It is so much easier to look after them and harvesting is easy.

Yes alkaline will give your spuds canker but it doesn’t hurt them at all.

I can remember having new potatoes at Christmas from the crop planted in Autumn.
You can't beat home-grown. They're quite happy in a grow-bag if you haven't got a garden----just a back-yard, so long as they're watered regularly and there's drainage.
Runner beans do well in a tub too.

I was sitting i the garden with my eyes closed thinking about potatoes and realised I should have said scab, not canker. ???

We grow them under straw in our raised beds with crop rotation (usually four beds of 120 cm squares). We have good soil enriched with our own compost. After chitting in the potting shed, we put the potatoes on the soil and push them down about 1cm. We then put a thick coat of straw on top and leave them to get on with it. The first one of the year is just showing a a couple of leaves.
Our garden is organic, never sprayed and if we get blight we cut the tops off as others have said. When we want some to eat we lift the straw and they come out lovely and clean. We lift what is left in the autumn, scrub, steam until almost cooked and freeze them. We haven't finished last year's yet. ?

I just bung em in and hope for the best, and pile compost and grass clippings n top. I have been doing this for nearly 25 years. I am sure I would get a bigger crop if I was more careful but there are only 2 of us and we have only just finished last years potatoes.

Hello! What foliar fertilizers do you use for potatoes?