[the great composto]

Do you ridge your potatoes? 
I decided not to this year just to find out what happens (and just to get a few stern looks from the older allotment holders).
I have been digging some up recently  & found absolutely no problems at all - not even any green potatoes.

When I planted them I ran through with the small rotovator and pushed the seed potato into the groove created by the drag bar & just covered them over.   This was a whole lot less labour than usual.

I think it may depend on the variety because I found was the charlottes tended to spread out not push up or go deep down.

Anybody else tried not ridging?

[FiB]

Yep - I didnt last year or this, but I did cover them with a thick layer of straw to grow through (I also tried old hay and cardboard ).  Great crop last year and this years looking great too.  It's one of those things where you dont know if you would have got a bigger crop if you did  (like all the tomato pinching faff - I dont do that either, but only cause I cant seem to grasp what I need to do!!)

[Fleecewife]

I usually ridge the potatoes, but there have been years when for one reason or another it hasn't been done, or it's only been done once.   What I have found is that....it depends on the potato variety     Some varieties grow much closer to the surface than others and these were the ones where I would lose a good half of the crop to greening, which is indicative of toxins in the potato.  With some varieties though hardly any potatoes were near the surface, so I only lost a few.   Which varieties were which?....I haven't a clue 
 I have tried growing under black polythene to keep out the light but found some light got through, so again the top tubers were greened.
I don't think it makes any difference how deeply you plant the tubers initially, because they start forming new ones just below where their stem comes to the surface of the soil, rather than around the original tuber.   I do think that earthing up can make a difference to overall yield for two reasons: one is that if your soil is nicely fertile then the tubers themselves have good access to this fertility with plenty of fresh soil piled around them;  and when they are earthed up there is plenty of soil to hold rainwater close to the tubers to help them swell.
I intend to earth up my potatoes this year but with the endless wet in this part of Scotland I must admit I haven't done it yet.  Maybe I will just use a thick mulch as you say FiB.
 

 

[the great composto]

Update - digging more potatoes up now with the 6 different varieties & not finding any more than a few green bits here & there. 
The verdict is I wont be ridging next year ( assuming I remember this topic i suppose).

[happy larry]

I wont be ridging again either,i planted a row of lady christi in march,a few cold nights had been forcast just as the leaves started poking through the soil.One end of the row i earthed up the rest i covered with some sections from an old greenhouse (plastic type glass) on digging up the potatoes the earthed up end where pathetic in comparison to the covered part of the row.

[the great composto]

most of my spuds have now been lifted with almost no green potatoes at all so ridging is a thing of the past for me.