potatoes - flowers and fruit
This is the first time I've planted potatoes. They appear to be very healthy, have flowered, and are now producing small fruit! I have read online that I should remove these, and also the flowers. Advice, please? And how long after flowering will the potatoes be ready? Thanks
Potatoes are ready when you think they are ready. What I mean by that is if you dig around the base of the plant, you will find potatoes. If they are the size you like, go ahead and pick 'em. If not, wait a little longer.
You can even pick a few and let the rest go until they get bigger. Enjoy the potatoes!
You can even pick a few and let the rest go until they get bigger. Enjoy the potatoes!
No, the flowers don't detract from production, and berries rarely form and if so do not get very large or numerous. Climatic stress conditions that favor flowering and berry setting might coincide with conditions bad for tuber production, but the flowers didn't cause the stress.
Tubers usually start to form about the time of flowering, and are big enough to steal as small "new potatoes" a couple of weeks later. The tubers will be at their largest when the plants die back, and a thick skin needed for long storage will develop a couple of weeks after the plants die or are cut down so if you want potatoes for storage wait that long before digging to be safe.
Tubers usually start to form about the time of flowering, and are big enough to steal as small "new potatoes" a couple of weeks later. The tubers will be at their largest when the plants die back, and a thick skin needed for long storage will develop a couple of weeks after the plants die or are cut down so if you want potatoes for storage wait that long before digging to be safe.