[brownrexx]

You don't need to worry about heavy clay soil. Just plant the potatoes on TOP of the soil and then cover with really deep straw. That's what I do and it works great but you have to make the straw really deep to keep the light off of the tubers.

I don't do this because of heavy soil but because I want to keep my harvest scab free and the scab spores live in the soil. I get a really nice clean harvest that I can "dig" with my hands. I like this method better than buckets because the plants can spread out more.