potato plant, small yield ?

[nitemare]

I had a potato plant that had begun to yellow i dug it up but the potato's were vary small very few, what went wrong ?

[applestar]

That's a hard question to answer without knowing what variety you grew and what kind of situation they were grown in.

Assuming we're talking about what in U.S. is called Irish potatoes, cut up or small seed potatoes (small chicken egg size) with 2 or 3 "eyes" (buds) are planted when the ground is just starting to warm in spring (when forsythias start to bloom and crabgrass seeds start to sprout -- for U.S. folks) I can't remember the exact temp 50º? -- I''ll have to look that up later. You need to pile more soil/compost/mulch on top of the seed potatoes as the leafy tops grow, burying anywhere from 8" to 24" of the growing stems because the new potato tubers form along the stems ABOVE the seed potato. Then you allow the rest of the plant to grow. Depending on variety, it takes anywhere from 90~120 days for the potato tubers to mature. With most varieties, the potatoes will flower and when they're done flowering, you can find good sized new potatoes that you can gently dig out. After that, you wait until the tops yellow and die to harvest potatoes that will store well.
Potatoes need full sun and consistent moisture in well draining soil to grow well, and slightly acidic soil helps to prevent scab.

[joshbuchan]

i like to grow my potatos in tubs or in old car tiers, then u can keep stacking them on top of eachother and filling with soil, the plant will just keep growing up and filling the new tubs or tiers with potatos, when the plant dies u just push it over take your potatos fill one back up plant some more potatos and of u go. if u use care tires u could have like 10 stacks of potatos that will not take up half the room plant in the groud would.

also to get the best potatos u will need to quite heverly fertilise, but if u check out the compost tea thread it will show u how to make free organic fertilser.

[nitemare]

Wow, you grow potatoes in Kuwait? Amazing!

why surprised ? we grow almost anything as long as it not a fruit tree although i know some people who manages to grow oranges and mandarin on their farm and we have a coconut plant that is still alive

thanks for all the answers, well i don't know what variety, found a couple in the kitchen that had some eyes so i though i'll give it a try, i fertilized lightly a couple of times, maybe i should have fertilized more i will try growing them in tubs and see what happens, well thanks again.

[nitemare]

nitemare,
I certainly didn't mean to be uncomplimentary, and if I insulted you or Kuwait, I apologize. It just was a new idea to me, and I expressed my surprise.
Potatoes from the store are sometimes treated with a supressant to make them keep longer and not sprout so soon. Your potatoes may have been treated with this, which would account for the small harvest.

in no way did i take it as an insult but it seems everybody still thinks we live in the dessert raising camels, anyway i don't think they were treated with a suppressant since we buy or veggies from the farmers' market and they start to sprout in about two weeks, well i'll try to get proper seed potatoes and see what happens.