When potatoes bloom, they will just be starting to make tubers. They will be quite small right now. It will be another month before they are mature. Of course you can pull them at any time and use whatever size tuber you find.Can anyone tell me when these plants should be ready to pluck?
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ElizabethB
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jal_ut
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With potatoes grown in the ground, the tubers form quite close to the top of the soil, we always hill them up so the tubers do not see the sun. If they get too much light they turn green and get a strong flavor. When to harvest them? You can poke in a finger and find a tuber and lift it up and take it any time. You can dig those taters when they are small and young and wash them up and boil them. The skins will wash off when they are young and tender. Or you can let them go full season till the vines tip over and say, "I'm Done", then dig the mature potatoes. These mature potatoes can be stored in a pit and will keep all winter. Here in this climate potatoes cannot be held over in the garden as the ground freezes and the potatoes die. If your ground does not freeze they would keep over winter and grow next season. When planting potatoes we always cut the tubers with one or two eyes per piece and plant the pieces. You know a potato has several eyes and each eye grows a new plant. You don't want six or more potato plants growing that close together, so that is why we cut them so we can get one plant about every foot in the row. Have fun!