How do you know when to harvest potatoes?

Dummy

This is my first year growing potatoes and I have 2 barrels planted. One with Maris Peers and the other with Charlottes.

There is fantastic foliage coming from both barrels and indeed we are enjoying the lush green colour of the foliage alongside some white flowers my wife has in pots beside them.

But when do you know when the potatoes are ready for harvesting?


D.

readmylips

flowers ! if theyve got white flowers then thats normally what we go by....also, just to be sure, have a lil peak under soil depends on the variety..early , etc...

shawnee

Rule of thumb is when the flowers go off the plant !:D

Dummy

Thank you. There are small flower buds on them at the moment but they haven't opened yet.

Am really looking forward to tasting some of our spuds.

Is there any variety that I can plant now, after these ones have been harvested?


D.

fodda

Your potatoes are still growing until the foliage tops die back and wither and that's when i dig mine and when the farmer used to dig his when we spent our childhood spud picking in October.:) Unless you have earlies?

http://www.grow-your-own.ie/potatoes.html

shawnee

Dummy wrote: »

Thank you. There are small flower buds on them at the moment but they haven't opened yet.

Am really looking forward to tasting some of our spuds.

Is there any variety that I can plant now, after these ones have been harvested?


D.

Potatoes require a fairly long growing season. The earlies/second earlies have the shortest season. It would generally be regarded as late to plant potatoes now but if you did decide to try it, it would be best to use early seed potatoes and they would be difficult enough to get at present. But if you get some, nothing to lose in planting a few

Elysedress

I was going to do a section on the varieties of potatoes here but after a bit more careful research I have realised that there are loads of varieties. So, rather than have a huge section I have just found some links to help you choose which potato is best for your climate.

A list of spuds and their countries and what they are resistant to. (mostly europe)

A site with links to potato varieties For most of the world

fodda

I went to a show once and they had hundreds of different spuds on display and all colours aswell.

Corsendonk

The OP actually mentioned his two cultivars, Maris Peer and Charlotte which are two of the most common baby potatoes cultivars you can buy in the supermarkets to eat. I wouldn't expect your yield to be too high as they are small sized varieties but you get a nice waxy potato. Those varieties develop early so wait until the flowers go off them and the foilage starts to yellow.