gundogblue
Cool Member
Posts: 61
Joined: Sat May 01, 2010 10:07 pm
Location: Tinley Pk IL

Two Questions Potatoes, and Sugarbaby watermellons

Hi all,
I hope everybodies gardens are coming along as well as mine, to date I have canned 72 quarts of tomatoes, elleven pints of pickles, elleven pints of tomatoe paste, 15 qt bags of corn, 10 qt bags of sweet peppers, and 8 qt bags of stringbeans, oh and 15 bags of basile. But I just don't know what to do about my potatoe plants, the top of the plants are starting to turn brown, but when I dug up two plants most of the potatoes were still small, a few were the size of my palm but not many. Should I dig them all out now since the tops are turning brown, or should I let them stay in the ground for a while yet? Also I planted Sugarbaby watermellons in the middle of June from starter plants, and so far they look real good, but the vine connected to the mellons have not started to turn brown yet, does anybody know about how long it takes for Sugarbaby watermellons to come to rippen?
Thanks,
Paul :D

TZ -OH6
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2097
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2008 7:27 pm
Location: Mid Ohio

For best storage let the potatoes stay in the ground at least two weeks after the tops have died completely . The tops can take their time dieing so keep your fingers crossed that the spuds will put on some more size.

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engineeredgarden
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Joined: Thu May 13, 2010 11:51 am
Location: NW Alabama

Paul - watch the tendril (the little curly thing that attaches itself to objects) closest to the actual fruit. Once it completely turns brown, wait about 2 weeks, then pull it. I've had great success with that method this year.

EG

garden5
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Posts: 3062
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:40 pm
Location: ohio

For the potatoes: give 'em a little more time.

Another method I've heard of for watermelons is to look for 5 small, brown spots on the stem portion where the vine attaches to the plant. When they're there, it's supposedly ripe.



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