I had bought quite a few seed potatoes, but just did not have a placeready to plant them. been busy trying to increase my permaculture. i have started a hugel bed it is not ready.so i planted them in cardboard boxes on top of hugel bed. they are up and looking good .im thinking when i harvest them ,just open bottoms and all the dirt and cardboard can be applied to hugel bed .has any one tried this? think it will work?

I think it should, Nell -- and I think that was very creative of you!! Did you put the seed potatoes near the bottom of the box and then fill in as they grew? (the potatoes will all grow above wherever you plant the "seed" potatoes, something that took me quite a few years to figure out...). I hope you'll take photos at harvest time and keep us informed about how this does work out for you

Potatoes actually grow along the stems,
so if you keep layering in more soil as the plants grow,
then you will get more potatoes.

It took me awhile to learn this even though we always "hilled" them.
Growing in containers makes this easier, and you can grow more in containers.

I did this one year in tall boxes. It was ugly but sort of worked... I'm in Washington so the rain made mush of the boxes toward the end of the season. This year I'm trying it in burlap coffee bags

Yes, in a rainy climate your burlap bags sound like a better idea.
I tend to use plastic bags, but we are drier here.

What a splendid idea! about the boxes that is. I may have to try that. Though where I am going to put a couple potato plants at this point I have no idea.... Maybe I can find a spot though.

Neat!

thanks yall.......for all the good information.well i had plenty of cardboard and a hugel bed thatneeded dirt so i thought i would try it, iwill let you know how well it works.

TippyToe said:I did this one year in tall boxes. It was ugly but sort of worked... I'm in Washington so the rain made mush of the boxes toward the end of the season. This year I'm trying it in burlap coffee bags

@TippyToe -- Welcome to All Things Plants, Patrice! I actually think that the fact the boxes were kind of decomposing is the beauty of using them, especially in the hugelkultur bed... box falls apart, potatoes are right there to harvest, everything just kind of becomes part of the bed (well, in my little fantasy world, anyway! )

edited to say -- Nell, I hope it really does work out that way for you!!

It should work just fine Nell. We used black plastic trash bags one year and they worked just fine..as things started growing and we added soil, we poked a few small holes in the bottom of the bag for drainage. It made harvesting easy..

is it to late to plant potatoes if not what should i buy type of seed this oldman is on a fixed income just now trying to grow what i can . never done any of this before. thanks for your help. i live in the columbus ohio area. thanks again loner

Welcome to Garden.org, @lonersplac !

You are quite a ways south of me, but I think if you plant some potatoes soon you will be okay...

otherwise, what would you like to grow? You could certainly plant tomatoes (plants), peppers (plants), cucumbers (plants or seeds), and seeds of lettuce, carrots, beets, etc. Start small and learn what grows well for you... and keep in mind that every year is different! Happy gardening!!

Welcome @lonersplac . You can also grow sweet potatoes that way.