Growing potatoes

[Jenise]

I don't know how a potato got growing in one of my wine barrel planters, but it did last year, and this year a whole bunch of potato plants came up in early spring. I recognized the leaf, and there were so many of them I just decided to get out of the way and grow a barrel of potatoes. I've never grown potatoes before, though, so I just checked a website to see what it had to say about when to harvest. They flowered about two weeks ago, and all I knew of potato growing was that this was a significant stage.

Here's what I found: "Your may begin to harvest your potatoes 2 to 3-weeks after the plants have finished flowering. At this time you will only find small "baby" potatoes if you were to dig up a plant. Potatoes can be harvested any time after this, by gently loosening the soil, reaching under the plant, and removing the largest tubers, leaving the smaller ones to continue growing. If you want late potatoes for storage, wait 2-3 weeks after the foliage dies back."

That's not quite enough information, so I have some questions for anyone who knows more than I do.

When does the foliage die back relative to flowering? And if I want to wait for mature potatoes, do I keep watering?
S

It will be a few weeks more before the foliage dies back - it's been quite a few years since I actually grew any, so I can't be more precise - and you should keep watering, unless you are getting sufficient rainfall.

Robert is correct.

Die back timing depends of course on your climate/neighborhood. But you should water until it occurs.

I'm always floored by how much water potato plants can drink in.

[Jenise]

Robert and Thomas, thanks. So once the foliage dies back, I can dig them up--or leave them in the earth to continue growing larger. If I opt for the latter, do I continue watering even then?

Robert and Thomas, thanks. So once the foliage dies back, I can dig them up--or leave them in the earth to continue growing larger. If I opt for the latter, do I continue watering even then?

At that point, I leave it to mom nature.

Remember, if you leave any potatoes behind to over winter, you may have potato plants in that barrel again next year. In fact, I wound up this year with two potato patches--one planned and one unplanned. I had more underground last year than I thought and so I left a few by mistake.

The real problem is having so many potatoes that it is difficult to keep them without losing a bunch. They have to be stored cool and relatively dry, but I have yet to hit on the right formula so that they aren't deteriorating (or sprouting) by end November/early December.

You've gotten excellent advice, Jenise, but you could always just do what one of my sisters did as a child. Anytime anybody stopped by she'd take them by the hand, drag them out to the garden where each of us kids had our own little section, point to her weed patch with potato plants nearly hidden, and exclaim "Look at my potatoes!! Aren't they just beautiful?!"

She never weeded or watered even once and we never had so many potatoes, before or since.

what i find intersting about freshly dug potatoes that i get at my farmers market is that at first they are unexpectedly sweet. then after a few days the sugar seems to turn to starch and they begin to taste like store bought potatoes - but good ones.

what i find intersting about freshly dug potatoes that i get at my farmers market is that at first they are unexpectedly sweet. then after a few days the sugar seems to turn to starch and they begin to taste like store bought potatoes - but good ones.

That's the nature of the development--or is it the deterioration--of the foods after picking.

Same with corn. There is nothing so sweetly tasty as a fresh-picked corn off the stalk--within seconds or else!!!

[James Roscoe]

what i find intersting about freshly dug potatoes that i get at my farmers market is that at first they are unexpectedly sweet. then after a few days the sugar seems to turn to starch and they begin to taste like store bought potatoes - but good ones.

That's the nature of the development--or is it the deterioration--of the foods after picking.

Same with corn. There is nothing so sweetly tasty as a fresh-picked corn off the stalk--within seconds or else!!!

My father has been home gardening all his life. There is nothing better than going to the garden and shucking the corn (thus giving back a little something to the soil) and going home and throwing it in the pot. With freshlyt dug potatoes I could almost be a vegetarian, but the grilled steak rounds out the meal so perfectly. Later in the fall when the lima beans come in..... heaven. (Oh and let's not forget all the tomatoes I consumed....) I am afraid my specialties were always harvesting and consumption.

[Jenise]

what i find intersting about freshly dug potatoes that i get at my farmers market is that at first they are unexpectedly sweet. then after a few days the sugar seems to turn to starch and they begin to taste like store bought potatoes - but good ones.

I look forward to the pleasure! Meanwhile, I get something of the sweetness you mention from the organic potatoes I've bought at the Co-op and the new season Skagits (not organic) we get from the next county about now. Potato season was great in Alaska, too, all the varieties the farmers would bring to market, usually late in August as the markets were about to close. To someone from Southern California, whose choice had always been Russet, red or white, all the variety names were exciting.

But perhaps the best potatoes I've ever had for baked potatoes was the big dark brown/almost black Egyptian potatoes I'd buy in Saudi Arabia. The flesh was similar to a russet but deep yellow in color, with a very minerally flavor that gave the impression of coming pre-buttered. Wonderful. Oh, and I would also give a nod to the little Prince Edwards, I think they were call, I used to buy in England. Tiny, smaller than a golf ball things that one could scrub and throw in whole along side a roast beef to cook in the fat and debris. Oh my were those good.