planted so went back to hills. Shredded paper would mush flat when it got wet, unlike straw, so I do not know if it'd work. Try one small area and report back?

Using fresh manure is not a good idea as they get scabby. You could put shredded paper on the soil to help keep moisture in, the soil soft, but don't know about using it to hill with as watering/rain would make it go flat.

Just trying potatoes for the first time this year. We're using the straw method and the plants are growing like crazy. In fact, we have no idea how tall they're going to get, have heard everything from 3' to 7'! I'd say they're about 3.5' tall now. So my potato question is, how tall can I expect them to get?

I've read to expect potatoes starting in August. Will let you know how the straw produces. Sorry to piggyback on your post!

it really is a crop that i have not had a lot of luck with, but as we work toward our own food sustainability, seems like spuds should be something we should grow a lot of. i mean, what better, easier keeper is there?
so i do want to get this right.

I couldn't grow potatoes in the vegetable garden, so i gave up and threw some in the compost pile. Now potatoes grow there every year. It is sort of straw-like. I just dump prunings in there, no forking over or anything.

It is about 4 foot by 4 foot and is not the actively used pile now. She leaves them compost for a few years, and when she starts a new one, she uses the old one to plant potatoes with good results.

or wood chips or shavings?

this is the city. straw is $7-8/bale if you are lucky. considering my luck with potatoes, they could come in at $30/lb. might still use it, but looking for things to stretch it.

Our soil is sand, so it is easy to move around.

I put composted manure on the bottom of the trench before setting down the seed potatoes. I heard that they like "muck". Our soil is not like that, so I put in the manure to get more nitrogen. Yields are ok: about one pound per lineal foot of the row I planted in.