TL DR- Will Russet potatoes grow in 8" of soil and/or in the hole/spaces of cinder blocks?
At our old home, 1/3 of the back yard was a big garden. I had ~50 tomato plans, 30 pepper plants, cukes, zukes, lettuce, eggplant, basil. However, at this home, I kinda took a break from gardening over the past 10-12 years. This year, I bought a bunch of cinder blocks, has two tons of mushroom compost delivered and put a thick layer of cardboard under everything prior to setting it up. But now I have a 4'x12' garden. Unfortunately, I started the seeds indoors way too soon and the first round all died. Then I experimented with planting some seeds in the ground garden 2-3 weeks ago. When I didn't see any sprouts over the week, I got antsy and just went and bought a few plants (3 tomato, watermelon, strawberry, cuke, and zucchini) just so we might have something to eat fresh. At the same time I started germinating more seeds inside as another effort to diversify.
Well the weather warmed up significantly over the past week and everything except the peppers and tomatoes have started sprouting and looks VERY healthy!! We are going to have a metric fuck ton of fruits and veggies if this keeps up!!! All the seeds I thoughts were dead are not very healthy and growing exponentially! So we'll have 20 stalks of sweet corn (no clue if we'll actually get any corn), 2 golden cherry tomato, 3 strawberry, 3-4 watermelon, 1-3 beefsteak tomato, jalapeno pepper plant, 4-5 cuke, 4-5 yellow squash, 3 zucchini, a bunch of carrots, radishes, and onions. Not sure if the basil is coming up yet.
However, I also have some potatoes and would like to try my hand at growing those. I have 3-4 old potatoes that I've sectioned and have dried/scabbed over (to protect from mold) over the past few days. All sections have eyes but only two sections have very healthy/developed eyes. Again, this is just to experiment, but I have a 2'x3' space in the middle of the garden AND I have multiple cinder block holes/spaces I can plant them in. However, the depth of the soil at this point is about 8", the ground is heavily layered in cardboard, and I do have the option to stack a few cinder blocks 2 high if 16" of depth (in the cinder block's holes) would be better for potatoes. But for those with experience, what are your thoughts on how to go about planting these? In the cinder block holes? Double up cinder blocks? Plant in the middle of the garden?
Please share your experience and suggestions.
Thanks!