Should I thin out some of the potatoes?

[monkeyboy]

I bought some plastic buckets that looked to be about 30 litres in size and used them to sow some potato seeds. About 4" compost, added some potato fertiliser, 2" more compost, added seed potatoes, added additional 4" compost.

I've "earthed up" three times - just adding a few inches of compost to cover all but the top 3" of leaves each time. The leaves are now growing over the rim by a few inches.

1. I've read on garden-focused (I think) that if I can't tell which leaves belong to which plant, I've sowed the seed potatoes too close/too many and this will result in small potatoes.

2. I've calculated the volume of the buckets at 25 litres and not the 30 litres I thought they were. Each bucket has either 3 or 4 seed potatoes.

3. There's still about 6" of space between the current level of compost and the rim of the bucket. Should I add more compost? The foliage is enough that I can barely see the compost.

I want to avoid dinky potatoes so I've considered removing/pulling up some of the seed potatoes (maybe one per bucket) to allow the rest to grow.

Should I leave well alone? Or best to pre-empt and remove one plant per bucket?

(I have first earlies and maincrop)

[Stan79]

How many buckets have you got?

[monkeyboy]

4 buckets, two for first earlies, two for maincrop.
25 litre buckets
3-4 seed potatoes per bucket

[Potstubsdustbins]

4 seed is certain more seed than I would plant in 25ltrs especially for main crop. If you want decent spuds say for chips and bakers I would have no more than 2.

New potatoes are smaller anyway and in 25/30ltrs I would plant 3 seed.

[bario1]

Maybe leave the earlies as they are, and thin one of the maincrops as an experiment? I'm not sure how much the disruption would upset the remaining plants?

[nickdub]

Of you do pull a few out and do it carefully, you might be able to move them into new containers.

[monkeyboy]

Of you do pull a few out and do it carefully, you might be able to move them into new containers.

Not enough space for more containers, so it'll get chucked into the garden waste.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Grow vertical get 80ltr plastic dustbins Main crop 4 seed per bin average yield plus of 20lbs, lid can be used for frost protection, bin used to store used compost ready for next year.