growing potatoes

[ogon]

hello, can any one tell me when potatoes are ready for picking, I am getting conflicting views from my friends and neighbours, should I dig down to the tubers and check or do you wait for them to flower ?,
thanks,

[applestar]

Well, my girls couldn't wait, so we checked after our potatoes flowered for about a week and they were about 1" big. We dug up 4 and boiled them in milk. Ate them with a little salt and butter. yum!

[cynthia_h]

We're growing potatoes for the first time this year. We have them in what I call a "potato box" whose sides we build up as the plants get taller.

I've read that we're "supposed" to keep placing dirt around the plants as the plants get taller, to make sure the potatoes don't get any sunlight. And then, after the flowers begin to show, to stop hilling them up.

And then...wait for the flowers to bloom, and the vines to wilt and die back.

THEN (we have been informed) there will be potatoes.

I'll report back on how/whether this works! I'm looking forward to very fresh potatoes.

Cynthia H.
USDA Zone 9, Sunset Zone 17

[pd]

Harvest first early varieties from early summer and about the size of a hen's egg. Usually indicated by the flowers opening.

Second earlies from late summer to early atumn.

Leave maincrop in the ground for as long as possible provided the tops are healthy (not atttacked by blight), otherwise the spores would wash down and damage the tubers. Also be wary of slug infested ground.

[ogon]

thanks to you all for replying, I am a little clearer now, can,t wait to see what results I get, thanks again.

[JennyC]

If your vines die, as mine recently did from what I think was heat, then go ahead and dig regardless of how long it's been. I didn't think I'd have anything since the vines had just begun to flower, but we're eating potatoes tonight from just three plants and I've got lots more left to dig.