Potatoes

[Annie]

I planted potatoes in baskets in February. They have come up fine, have kept covering them with soil and hay several times. They are now about 15 inches tall. I read you have to wait until they bloom and the tops die before you harvest them. Since they have not bloomed yet but look like there is a lot of yellow on the leaves do I harvest them now? I also have some in a bed with soil and hay, they're up about the same and very green but no blooms. How much longer do I wait? They are all fingerlings. I did empty one basket that looked pretty bad and got a few out of that one. Just don't know what to do. The ones in basket have a lot of yellow leaves that look like blight. I asked in another thread. Is potato blight anything like tomato and can it spread to tomato plants? Anne

[Crandrew]

Sounds like you might have some disease issues. They should bloom before they are harvested. I will let others with more knowledge respond.

[tjg911]

in my experience growing potatoes they don't always flower. some years they did but most years they did not. regardless of whether they flowered or not they did produce potatoes. as far as yields in those years i can't say if that is effected re flowering.

potatoes always yield poorly imo. water is critical and in hills it is hard to water w/o a soaker hose. i did get better yields with a soaker hose but still nothing to be happy about. then i read that a potato plant yields 1-4 pounds, i would get 1 to 1.5 pounds per plant from 35 plants using 160 sq ft of garden. this is why they grow potatoes in northern maine in poor soils where they have thousands of acres of land!

i stopped growing them, for the amount of space they took up i could have feed 5 families with other things i grow vs getting 32-35 pounds of potatoes.

tom

[Annie]

Tom, my grandson and I tried growing them in basket and then built a space with leaves and straw and as the potatoes grew we kept adding soil and straw. In the article it said to only water a couple of times a week. I really think my problem may be not enough water. The ones in the large mound always felt damp when I tested it but the baskets probably dried out too much. I will let you know how the large mound did.

[Annie]

I think my problem in the baskets is not enough water. In the large bed we put down straw, soil and fertilizer, added potatoes and kept building. When the potatoes started coming up we kept adding to it to the top of the potato plants, then when the potatoes plants grew, we add to the top of them again. The bed if still growing potatoes and we have added more soil and straw to the top of plants and it is still growing. I just don;t know when to stop adding soil and straw. The plants are very healthy and green. It was just the ones in the market baskets that had started turning yellow and looked like they had a blight on them. As I sai we turned out one basket and got a few potatoes. I think I just didn't water those in the basked enough. In the article we were trying with the straw, soil and leave compost it said to only water about twice a week. When I felt under there it was still damp. Will let you know howit goes. Thanks Ann

[Tracydr]

Are the potatoes supposed to have little white balls on the stems? I assume those will develop a skin and become the potatoes as they mature? I just pulled back some straw on my potatoes today and saw a few little white marbles.
My first baby potatoes.
Now if I can keep them alive for another month in the heat.

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

Are the potatoes supposed to have little white balls on the stems? I assume those will develop a skin and become the potatoes as they mature? I just pulled back some straw on my potatoes today and saw a few little white marbles.
My first baby potatoes.
Now if I can keep them alive for another month in the heat.

i have seen that often on the roots or at the base of the plant where it is underground when digging them and assume they are tiny potatoes. by then the plants are dying back so they won't develop had i left the plants along. i don't recall ever seeing what you describe above the soil line. i'm not an expert on potatoes having grown them just 4 or 5 seasons but that was always what i thought.

tom

[tjg911]

ann,

potatoes need a fair amount of water. until i used a soaker hose they did poorly, even with a soaker hose the yields were low as i stated before. potatoes are all water and in the growing season here it is dry. by mid june irrigation is needed. i grew them once in a 4' X 4' X 12" box in the garden. i mulched and watered well since it was a small space i could control vs a 35' row 4' wide. the results were typically lousy this is why i gave up on them. in baskets they are surrounded by air and that'll heat them up and dry out the soil. water is important and short of keeping the soil wet all the time causeing them to rot i'd suggest watering them a lot. of course air temp and sun/clouds play into this, not an extact science you have to use your best judgement.

tom

[Annie]

Tom. I dumped out three basket of potatoes this morning and got around 60 little fingerling potatoes. Not a big crop but they were a pretty nice size. I do think my watering has been the problem. My big patch looks good so and I haven't done anything with it yet because the tops are still growing. After we planted them we had a lot of cool weather and some rain. The straw seemed to hold in a lot of moisture and I was afraid I would rot them. When I do dig them up will let you know how they are doing. I did have some little white ones that looked like they might be starting potatoes, relly don't know. Annie

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by tjg911

i have seen that often on the roots or at the base of the plant where it is underground when digging them and assume they are tiny potatoes. by then the plants are dying back so they won't develop had i left the plants along. i don't recall ever seeing what you describe above the soil line. i'm not an expert on potatoes having grown them just 4 or 5 seasons but that was always what i thought.

tom

These balls are well under the straw but above soil. I have them deeply mulched, trying to keep roots cooler and moisture constant.

[tjg911]

so do you think they are potatoes? if no what do you think they are?

tom