I don't think your pots are big enough. It is time to earth up potatoes and you have no room, and neither is there room for a proper crop of potatoes. Is there any chance you could try putting them into much bigger pots? Did you start the tall one off in the house or greenhouse, because if so it is probably like that in response to too much warmth and not enough light.

A better way of growing them on the patio is to use a large container and put several plants in the same one.

i started them off outside ~ i have 2 others in a much larger pot and they are doing the same thing.

I agree they do need a much larger pot and should be earth up around them (as they grow underneath)and need a lot of room. If you dont have big enough pots you can now get bags to grow them in.

Hi Sticki potatoes are like every other plant they come in all shapes and sizes. Some do grow tall straggly foliage others are much more compact. Can you tell us which seed you are growing and how big are your pots? I would add some compost to the top of the pots. If you have any old bags which your compost came in you could turn them inside out, for aesthetic reasons, and slip these potatoes in to the bags. You will need to add more compost but you will get a bigger crop. You will get potatoes from these pots but obviously not too many there is insufficient space to allow them to produce many or large tubers.They will taste good though.

thank you Drc and scotsgran, they are kestrel potatoes ~ the pot in the photo is about 14" tall and appx 12" diameter but the other pot is almost twice that size.
its not to late to move them then??

my thought was to only dig/lift a few potatoes at a time cos we dont eat that many.

I think your pot size is adequate. I have not grown Kestrel in pots recently but they are a second early and also recommended by Simply Seeds as a potato to grow in pots for Christmas along with Charlotte and Carlingford. Before you planted them can you recall how many eyes were chitted? How many sprouts were coming from each potato? You only seem to have one stem on the nearest potato and maybe 2 on the one farther back. These come from the sprouted eyes and if you took all but one off then that is why you only have one stem. Others may come yet. I have never been successful at taking a few potatoes out at a time. Once the flowers die either leave the shaws on for a couple of weeks to let the potatoes grow bigger or pull off the stems and harvest the potatoes. Take out the original seed and throw it in the bin. Check that all the potatoes are healthy and sound and put them back in the pot covered with the compost to keep them in the dark. Then you can use them as you need them. Happy eating.

thanks scotsgran ~ that sounds more hopeful; all the seed potatoes that i put in had one main eye chitted ~ at least an inch long before i planted it, some had one or two other little shoots but nothing much.

The only thing I found a problemlast year was that the pots which I thought I was watering adequately were dry 2" under the top so keep an eye on the watering and sit back and enjoy the fruits of your own garden. A lot of people use growmore as a top dressing when the shaws are getting up a bit but I prefer maxicrop liquid seaweed feed.

thats helpful, thank you ~ how much feeding do they need? once a week?

It depends on lots of things. Sorry not to be too dogmatic about it but you really need to read the label and then decide what your own plant and garden needs. That way you will learn as you go. I tend to under rather than overfeed because you cannot take it away but you can always add. I prefer not to use anything extra on the soil if i can get away with it. Except water and that we have already discussed. This year I am trying to be more scientific about my crop and have made up an excel spread sheet to track what happens to them I will put a photo of it on here. I would like to compare with others how well potatoes grow in pots.

i will update you as the plants grow ~ thanks again

You are welcome.

i have given them some more soil ~ heaped it up a bit in the pot.

I heap the soil up around the stalk and then press all round the top of the pot with my fingers to make a sort of 1"deep moat so that the soil does not get washed out when I water.

thats a good idea ~ thank you ~ this is still below the level of the rim but i will keep that in mind
thanks again.

If it is possible to repot them another way of doing them which i know is successful is to put them in an empty compost bag and every time the shhots appear earth them up and keep on doing this until they have flowered. the more you can earth them up the better ,as the stem should not be showing at all. The other reason as you probably know about earthing up is that it stops the potatoes from going green which is poisenous.

thanks rose, i do have one bag i could use. will give it a go.

I forgot to say ,stick the compost bag must be a good size (70 litres or more) and you must put drainage holes in it. Put your compost in but not too much as you need the bag rolled down .When shoots appear then add more compost and unroll the bag a bit more and repeat until the bag is full and your shoots are still through and eventually flowering.You should get a small crop with about 5 potatoes to a bag.Now is a good time to start off main crop.

I'm glad your pots are bigger than they appeared to be on the photo! Hope you get a successful crop.