Diggin for taters

[gundogblue]

On May 9th I planted my taters, Kenebeck, and Yukon Gold, and I hilled them with straw. I don't know if it's too soon to try and dig some up, but I did scratch around, but I could'nt find any, do I have to dig under the dirt? And if so how far under the ground would they be? I'm asking this question because it's my first time to grow potatoes, and I don't want to go digging around willy-nilly, I'm afraid I might hurt the plants. So if you all can tell me the proper way to get to the taters I'd sure appriciate it, or maybe it's just too soon.
Thanks,
Paul

[Hispoptart]

Have your plants begun to flower? if not then it's to soon. Flowering is the sign of the potatoes growing. Ours have just started to flower and we have about marble sized potatoes.

[DoubleDogFarm]

I would wait until a week or two after flowering before digging new potatoes.

[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/potatoplant.gif[/img]

Most tubers are formed above the seed potato. No need to dig much below that level.

[jal_ut]

Potato tubers often come out of the ground when they are not hilled up. It is not necessary to go very deep to find some taters. I usually just thrust a finger in a ways to see if I can hit one. Then if one is found just slip the finger under it and pop it out. This way the plant can stay and maybe produce some more tubers. Of course, you can always just dig the whole plant and take what you get. The bloom is an indication that tubers are likely to be forming. If you wait a week or two after seeing blossoms the tubers will be larger.

[gundogblue]

Thanks for the info, yep some of my plants are flowering, so I'll wait a little while so the taters can get a little bigger, they were planted about six weeks ago, and I've read that Yukon Gold, and Kenebeck taters take about 65 days , so that would take me to about the middle of July. But every time I look at my garden I just want to "try out" it's fruits. I did harvest some peas yesterday, we'll have them in beef stew tonight, this is sooo cool, I'm really glad I'm into gardening, it's the best thing I've done since I retired.
Paul