Potato soil

I've got 8 acres of oak/hickory forest with lots of rotting tree debris. Under/around the more rotten logs is fluffy black humus. Do you think it would be good for growing potatoes in? Maybe mixed with compost and this acid silt soil. I'm building some raised beds, raised by digging out the topsoil and putting dead logs and some compost in the bottom after cracking the subsoil, then putting the topsoil back on. Now I'm trying to decide what to hill up around the potato plants.

Gotta be worth a try - you're describing a Hugel system, yes? Spuds are often pretty tolerant of our experiments, but the proof will be in the results, I guess. Sounds like that stuff could be an excellent inoculum for elsewhere too, with that degree of fungal net established.

This fluffy composted wood you describe is a most excellent soil ingredient. I have dug out piles of it, charged it with urine and wood ash for a while, and used it directly as container soil.....

Hmm... good idea.. actually I have some trees that fell over in my woods this winter. The roots pulled up huge piles of dirt/wood/leaves/etc

I planted some pea seed in one of these where it left a clearing big enough to get some sunlight too. (Which I think would be important for potatoes too)