Supporting potato plants? When to harvest?

[Anthony_Toronto]

Rained today and half of my potato plants are lying on the ground. Is this to be expected, do potato plants ever need to be supported?

Did a little investigation under a plant or two and found a potato that was about 2 inches long but the only other one I found was about half an inch. Accidentally broke off the 2-inch one so washed it, sliced it, quickly zapped it with some salt pepper and olive oil, and it tasted creamy and delicious. But when should I be thinking about harvesting? Planted them about a month ago, several plants are 18 inches tall so maybe have some time to go, a few have some flowering, but in my few checks underground I haven't seen much, aside from some stolons that had nothing on the end of them yet. How can I know for sure when to pull up a plant, should I just keep on carefully checking every week or so until I find a bunch of taters under there?

[KarenO]

Hilling each plant with soil will help to support your potato foliage. for baby potatoes there should be some starting when the plants are in bloom. you can carefully "scrabble" under the hills and steal a few. For the main harvest it depends on the variety, some potatoes are earlier than others. Generally you can wait until the foliage all yellows and dies back or even until after a frost before digging the entire hills. The potatoes need to be mature with a thicker skin for storage. If you have only enough to eat fresh and don't plan to store them you can start pulling entire plants for a meal one at a time starting about the end of July and you should have some good sized spuds by then again, depending on variety.
KO

[wmontanez]

KO explained well

I never support my plants, I let them be
I take potatoes early from some plants around August to enjoy as meals... and let some yellow and die down to harvest late in October

In one month growing you wont get much...in 60 days from planting there is more to enjoy.
Some Early to Mid varieties are 90 days -100 days example ‘Yukon Gold’ and "Red Norland" are in this group
Late varieties need 110 days or more of growing time, ‘Kennebec’ is in this group

[Anthony_Toronto]

The one I ate last night was so tasty I might be digging around some more.

Any recommendations for comprehensive detailed instructions on growing taters, i.e. the little details that 99.8% of the info on the internet will never mention or just does not know about? Have been doing tomatoes for 10 years or more and still learning...first time with potatoes this year and I would like to ramp up my knowledge and make sure I'm giving them enough space, water, fertilizer, hilling, etc...

[Anthony_Toronto]

Ok, the plants are getting tall and the stems are falling over and snapping off at the base. Do they really need no support???

[KarenO]

Hilling, early on, and usually repeated once or twice as the plants grow. provides support by burying the stems part way. sometimes people will hill with straw in a small garden where the plants are spaced closely and there is not a lot of extra soil to hill with. For yours it may be too late to do that now, especially if your plants are already blooming. a photo would help. I have never seen anyone "support" potato plants in any other way than hilling and the other benefits include ensuring coverage of potatoes so they are not on top of the ground exposed to sunlight which ruins them.you could carefully mulch a small patch at this stage and let them sprawl. Potato tops are brittle and break easily so minimal disturbance will be best. Hill them early next year and you'll have better luck. Google how, there's lots of info and probably videos on you tube.

KO

[Anthony_Toronto]

Yup I hilled them early, weeks ago, but maybe because they are in new triplemix they grew a little faster and taller than thigh might have otherwise. All the taters are well below the surface for now but I found a few that are getting a little close to poking through so keeping my eye on them. Might just have to lose a few stalks here and there.

[wmontanez]

I add 50% compost to my soil most years. If can't add compost then 1 cup or so at planting time of tomato fertilizer. I hill 2 times. I mulch now also, since less watering is needed. I read some ppl like to add comfrey as mulch and it breaks down adding nutrients. (I dont have avail). I try not to add too much nitrogen since it only grows top leaves and less tubers and I noticed potatoes give me more tubers if planted where they received full morning light exposure and good sun during day time but shade on afternoon. This is consistent through 4-5 years now.

[clkeiper]

Watch for the flower. That is indicative of the time period of when you can start to pull new potatoes. Once they flower I give them a couple of weeks and then start looking for edible sized taters. If you can put straw down on the ground in between the rows this will help keep the weeds down and the foliage clean, too. DON'T let the potatoes near the surface get any sunlight, if you see any exposed put a little soil or straw on them to cover them back up. The sunlight will cause the skins to turn green and bitter along with being toxic (if you can possible eat enough of them that way).

[Worth1]

Potatoes can be left in the ground for some time after the plant dies.
This is how the Irish stored/hid their potatoes to keep the British from stealing them and taking them back to England.
We always harvested our potatoes under a bunch of dead dried up plants.

Worth

[Anthony_Toronto]

Geez, was rooting around for some new potatoes yesterday and thought I'd check the pink potato plants that I planted much later than my Yukon gold, and I pulled one out that was bigger than my fist, about 3 times bigger than any that I pulled from the Yukon gold planted weeks earlier. Plants were put in from mid-may to beginning of June. I've seen some suggestions to carefully pry up entire plants, remove taters, then re-plant and leave the plant to grow what it will through the end of the season. I think I have about 18 plants total of 3 different varieties, I certainly don't need 18 plants worth of mature end-of-season potatoes to store and eat, and love how the new potatoes are tasting, but after finding that big one I might do some careful digging to see what else is under there. First year growing taters so I have no clue how deep they go, and have just been rooting around in the raised portions and just below the surface so far. But some of the plants seem to have no potatoes at all growing, just stolons for now. And I did end up putting a bit of 'florida weave' just in front of the potato plants to keep them from flopping forward (and covering up my carrots), but other than that no support put in.

[Anthony_Toronto]

Pulled up another pink potato the size of my fist yesterday, as well as several others that were two inches or so long. I know its early, they've been in the ground for 6 to 8 weeks depending on the variety, but if I'm pulling fist-sized potatoes then might it be time to pry up a plant and see what's going on under there? I think I have 20 or so plants, and I certainly don't want to end up with a few hundred full-sized potatoes for storage at the end of the season but I do want some. And I love how the new potatoes have turned out so want to eat those all the way along if I can. Does anyone ever carefully pry up a plant, pull off the potatoes with any size, and then carefully re-set the plant in the ground to wait for maturity?

[wmontanez]

I had done that to steal enough for dinner.
Nothing beats the flavor of new potatoes right about now !
If you have a garden fork ... stick it a good foot from the main stem and pry up....do 4 sides like that then after done re-plant and water well around the mound. (shovel also works but sometimes i cut in few half potatoes)

what's the name of the pink variety? good bulking up for 6 weeks~

[Anthony_Toronto]

I think I have the tag for the pink one, flavour and texture were nice, just surprised at the size. Have been digging around by hand on several other plants and feel only little ones or golf-ball sized, or none at all. But that's just in the mound and just below the regular soil surface...how deep do taters grow? I don't think I put the seed potatoes more than 6 inches below the surface, with maybe 3-6 inches of mound depending on where the plant is. I have enough plants to accidentally destroy several and still have more potatoes than I could ever eat, so I'll grab the fork and carefully play around out there, and if I find more than I expected to find I'll pick and start handing out new potatoes to neighbours and well wishers, and my belly. Maybe I'll make some nice gnocchi.

[Anthony_Toronto]

Here is the second one of this size that I pulled from one of the pink plants, put in a week or two later than my yukon gold and twice as big as anything I've pulled from any of my 12 yukon gold plants.