Depth of raised beds for potatoes

[Rob_h]

I'm putting in a few raised beds - about 3 metres square, probably six or so. Although we have enough land, the soil hasn't been worked over for a while - and is laid to lawn at the moment where the beds are going in -so I thought it was easier to make raised beds. If I want to grow potatoes, what depth would the beds need to be? At the moment I was planning to use two 3" planks on top of each other, so effectively six inch deep beds. Is that enough for pots?

[Mo]

I Start my spuds at the bottom of a shallow trench, fill with grass cuttings and a little of the earth, then as they come through I earth up with the rest of the earth and bring more earth from elsewhere to mound them up Never tried raised beds, I mound mine quite high. Last year I didn't get round to the final earthing up for some of them, and the spuds growing near the surface rotted. It was a bad year for blight.

[Mo]

describes the earthing-up
I suppose if you start with a trench 8" down, your planks will hold the bottom of the hill, depending how wide your beds are. The middle of the row will be higher.
When digging your trench you can cut the turf and put it face down in the bottom.
You may find that the first year you get more wireworm , the chickens will eat any you throw to them. I wonder if they would scratch them out of the turf if you threw it in their run?

[Rob_h]

Thanks for the links. I'm thinking over how I'm going to do it.

[rachell24]

talking of potatoes,

has anyone had any success with growing them in containers and what varieties did you grow? My garden isnt big enough for everything I want so am going to grow some in containers, but have read that not all varieties of potatoes are suited to containers.