The garbage can potatoes were ready to be dug up so I went for it. The plants might have grown more if a few crucial waterings hadn't been missed, but that's life....
The red potatoes, "Huckleberry," were from the garbage can. The white potatoes, probably "Binje" (lost the label), were grown in the ground in hills. There were pretty much the same amount of potatoes from both plots. There was one less "Huckleberry" seed potato. More compost around the plants in the garbage can was possible, but that too got away from me.
The biggest difference is in the quality of the potato. The "Huckleberry" potatoes are beautiful. The white potatoes have a scab or two and some brown spots. From an economic stand point, the extra mulch for the garbage can was not effective at creating more quantity. I will try this again though. The red potatoes are going to be more useful.
Organic potatoes in this area are selling for about 2 dollars a pound at the Farmer's market. There is about 10 dollars worth of potatoes in these two batches. The seed potatoes were 2 dollars a pound, so it's a savings of 6 dollars over buying from the farmer's market.
There are still fingerling potatoes to dig up, plus two other varieties (I hope they are out in the jungle!). I'm waiting on those because they are for storage.
The sweet potatoes are really looking good. They are starting to spread and fill in the planters. It's going to be awhile before these get dug up though.