Harvesting Early Potatoes

fortyonenorth · July 1, 2010

This is my first year growing potatoes and I'm a bit confused about when to harvest early potatoes. I've read that they're "ready" once they're finished flowering. Do I have to harvest at this time, or can I wait and harvest along with main crops at the end of the season?

My only early is this year is Peanut. I've poked around in the hills and have only found little spuds about the size of a small grape. Will they get bigger if I give 'em more time?

**Tom Wagner** · July 1, 2010

Most any potato can be "ready" after flowering for those "new" potatoes and it is always a treat to have them to savor. But allowing them to mature until all have died down is a good deal for keeping abilities. Normally, I don't consider Peanut, Swedish Peanut, Mandel, etc. to be an early....it still needs 100-120 days for maturity.

If you have only "grape" sized potatoes....I would wait until you have near egg sized tubers or until the skin turns more brownish.

My Peanut (Mandel) hybrids are showing all kinds of color. I won't know what the flavors are for a few months yet. There are precious few varieties out there that have descended from Mandel and I hope to correct that.

Tom Wagner

Donna Mattingly · July 2, 2010

Tom Wagner! Wow. I know and respect your name and your work in bringing us one of my very favorite tomatoes - Green Zebra. So we have Carolyn Male AND Tom Wagner here...

When it comes to harvesting potatoes, I LOVE the babies. There is only one time to get them, and that's really early - right after the blossoms... It's true you'll get many more pounds of potatoes if you wait until they are all big and fully mature, but to me, that takes all the fun out of it - and also wastes the once-in-a-season pure delight of those first tastes of brand new baby potatoes.

We always dig early ones every few days before the big harvest.

Once, though, we were invited to help dig potatoes in a garden in a neighboring county. They had very sandy soil and the potatoes were HUGE. But you will never believe how they dug those potatoes: with KITCHEN FORKS AND SPOONS!!! (I do have pictures somewhere). They were so intent on not damaging any potato and obtaining the maximum yield, that the only tools they'd consider using were those small utensils. And harvesting a small potato was an absolute blaspheme. They considered it the height of wastefulness.

I thought it was nuts. They thought I was nuts. So I guess we were even.

TZ-OH6 · July 5, 2010

One of the vender sites (Ronningers/ Potato Garden maybe) lists Peanut as an early variety, but all the others have it as more or less Late. I've found quite a bit of variation when I was trying to look up things like that about some varieties, which taught me to look in several places for a consensus.

July 1, 2010	#1
fortyonenorth Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: NW Indiana Posts: 1,150	Harvesting Early Potatoes This is my first year growing potatoes and I'm a bit confused about when to harvest early potatoes. I've read that they're "ready" once they're finished flowering. Do I have to harvest at this time, or can I wait and harvest along with main crops at the end of the season? My only early is this year is Peanut. I've poked around in the hills and have only found little spuds about the size of a small grape. Will they get bigger if I give 'em more time?

July 1, 2010	#2
Tom Wagner Crosstalk™ Forum Moderator Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: 8407 18th Ave West 7-203 Everett, Washington 98204 Posts: 1,157	Most any potato can be "ready" after flowering for those "new" potatoes and it is always a treat to have them to savor. But allowing them to mature until all have died down is a good deal for keeping abilities. Normally, I don't consider Peanut, Swedish Peanut, Mandel, etc. to be an early....it still needs 100-120 days for maturity. If you have only "grape" sized potatoes....I would wait until you have near egg sized tubers or until the skin turns more brownish. My Peanut (Mandel) hybrids are showing all kinds of color. I won't know what the flavors are for a few months yet. There are precious few varieties out there that have descended from Mandel and I hope to correct that. Tom Wagner

July 2, 2010	#3
Donna Mattingly Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Kentucky Posts: 64	Tom Wagner! Wow. I know and respect your name and your work in bringing us one of my very favorite tomatoes - Green Zebra. So we have Carolyn Male AND Tom Wagner here... When it comes to harvesting potatoes, I LOVE the babies. There is only one time to get them, and that's really early - right after the blossoms... It's true you'll get many more pounds of potatoes if you wait until they are all big and fully mature, but to me, that takes all the fun out of it - and also wastes the once-in-a-season pure delight of those first tastes of brand new baby potatoes. We always dig early ones every few days before the big harvest. Once, though, we were invited to help dig potatoes in a garden in a neighboring county. They had very sandy soil and the potatoes were HUGE. But you will never believe how they dug those potatoes: with KITCHEN FORKS AND SPOONS!!! (I do have pictures somewhere). They were so intent on not damaging any potato and obtaining the maximum yield, that the only tools they'd consider using were those small utensils. And harvesting a small potato was an absolute blaspheme. They considered it the height of wastefulness. I thought it was nuts. They thought I was nuts. So I guess we were even.

July 5, 2010	#4
TZ-OH6 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Mid-Ohio Posts: 848	One of the vender sites (Ronningers/ Potato Garden maybe) lists Peanut as an early variety, but all the others have it as more or less Late. I've found quite a bit of variation when I was trying to look up things like that about some varieties, which taught me to look in several places for a consensus.