Container potatoes

[Ken the Chef]

Why is it that my potatoes have only grown at the bottom of the container.
I always thought that they should grow from the base of any leaf that was covered.
I earthed up three times so I was expecting three layers of potatoes. The growing medium was peat free compost. The potatoes that came out were fairly clean with only a few having scabs.
Has anybody else had this problem and can anyone tell me why this has happened.

[maytreefrannie]

I don't know why that happened, Ken, but I've a bin where I grew potatoes, earthed them up twice and there's nothing showing under the soil. You've given me some encouragement though, I'm hoping there'll be some at the bottom of the bin.

One bin to be up-ended this evening!

[ChrisG]

This happened to me, the answer I got was that it is maincrop pots that need earthing up. New pots don't as they grow spuds at the bottom only. I didn't bother earthing this year just planted and covered and they seem to be okay.

[rustylady]

How much soil/compost was below your original seed potatoes? And how deep were your containers? If you look at potatoes grown in open ground the seed potatoes are usually planted around six inches below the soil surface. They are only earthed up to prevent the developing tubers going green from exposure to the light, and then usually to a maximum of a further 8 inches or so.