when to harvest potatoes?

[jdboston]

Ok so I live here in boston and I planted a bunch of seed potatoes in early April in a 40 gallon container. They have grown wonderfully and now are starting to turn Yellowish and wilt over. We just had a heat wave so I didnt know if it was the heat or they are ready to harvest?



Ps thanks in advance.

JD

[TZ -OH6]

They might be finished if it was an early variety.

Tubers start to form about the time the plant flowers. Give them a couple of weeks to grow and you can harvest thin skinned 'new' potatoes. The tubers will continue to grow until the plant dies off. Then if you are going to store them, leave them in the ground a couple of weeks minimum to let the skin thicken and harden. You can leave them in the ground until there is the threat of the ground freezing. They probably store better that way than in a garage etc unless you have a temp and humidity controlled area.


Commercial spud farmers will kill the plants when the tubers are at the size they want.

[jal_ut]

Planted in early April, they are likely ready for harvest. You can poke a finger in here and there to see if you can find a tuber and pull it to look at it. For sure there will be tubers.

[jdboston]

yes there are potatoes about 3 inches long...do I harvest or should I wait?

[applestar]

You can harvest some now for new potatoes and leave some attached to grow some more, but 3" is a respectable size. Congratulations.

-- now I want to go dig around MY potatoes and see how they are doing but we are getting unusually frequent rain showers, so I guess I have to wait.

[Brandywinegirl]

Because we have gotten so much rain, I decided to breakdown and dig down for my taters. To my surprise my gold yukon are HUGE!! A few were almost a pound each! I used worm castings and seeweed/fish fertilizer for the first time. I really think that is the reason. Waiting for my purple striped Masquerade potatoes to be ready to harvest. Making some french fries tonight!!

[RogueRose]

I was wondering the same thing....I pulled up one plant and I found 3 potatoes on it. One was tiny - not edible. the other was huge, and the next was medium sized. I am going to wait a bit longer on the others. I was a bit bummed that one plant pretty much just had 2 potatoes. It was some kind of thin-skinned white potato.

[Gary350]

I am waiting to plant my potatoes in September we have a mild winter so I best garden should be in the fall. When the plants turn yellow, wilt and start to turn brown too potatoes are ready to harvest. They like full sun. My Grandfather told me to pull the plants out of the ground the potatoes will come out with the plants. If the soil is loose enough they will. Did down along side 1 plant until you find a potato you can see what you have before you pull them up.

[RogueRose]

I pulled two more potatoe plants up because they are "blocking" the sprinkler from the potted tomatoes and I'm going away and I need the tomatoes to be watered. I still have plenty of potatoes left. I think next year I need to plant deeper so I can hill more.

[Ohio Tiller]

We have had one of the best growing season I can remember it has just been wonderful. I was able to get my potatoes in the ground in March and they are all starting to die off. I had one go earlier than the rest so I dug it and was surprised with 6 very nice baseball sized potatoes. I have a feeling it is going to be a real good potato year.

[TZ -OH6]

I have mid and late season varieties and I was concerned about the increased growth from the recent rain, but an expert told me that a boost in growth-fertilizer during flowering is good. All of the nutrients in the vegetation will be translocated to the tubers at the end of the season when it dies off. I'm busy squishing potato beetle larvae now.

[Brandywinegirl]

I thought the same thing & added more worm castings and seeweed/fish fertilizer with all of the rain we had. My Gold Yukon's that are bigger than my hand have "hollow heart." I had never heard of this before. The inside was split and brown. They say its from too much fertilizer and too much rain/water. We got over 10 inches in June here. The taters are still yummy, I just had to cut out the middle. Has anyone else ever had this happen?

[Dillbert]

>>hollow potatoes

yup. now and then, a couple out of a dig.
with the rain we've had, I'll be curious this year.

the plants are still going strong - I was expecting them to commence going ratty soon.... they are in full sun and this is July.

[Ohio Tiller]

Bad thing about hollow hearts is they do not store very long!

[Brandywinegirl]

I know - they won't store long so I will be FORCED to make mashed potatoes and EAT them soon!!