- Mmm… salad!
One of the interesting things about gardening in the Pacific Northwest is that as much as I bemoan our lack of sun and heat, I’ve also learned to appreciate the rain. My snow peas are in full production now, and could use a little water to keep the pods growing big and tender, while the ripening raspberries already appear to be begging for soaker hoses. It was a cool, gray spring no doubt, but we haven’t gotten much in the way of precipitation these past few weeks, so I was actually pleased to wake up to rain this morning.
This is the time of year when even a small bed of lettuce and other salad greens can grow faster than I can eat it. And I eat of a lot of salad. Plus, I’ve got a bunch of small starts coming up in the open spaces in the tomato bed that need to be thinned… and of course, eaten.
- Five small seed potatoes turned into this.
But my real reason for posting is the potatoes. I’ve never grown them before, but they appear to be going gangbusters. So my question to all you experienced, Seattle area potato growers is this: When do I start harvesting? The Red Pontiacs are already flowering, and the Yukon Golds are close behind. Do I wait until the foliage dies back, and if so, when does that happen in Seattle? Or can I start harvesting new potatoes now?
i’m a new gardener, so i don’t know the answers. trying calling the garden hotline provided by seattle tilth: (206) 633-0224, Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. I call them about everything and they always have an answer.
We have always harvested ours at the end of the summer. They keep growing underground long after the foliage has flowered and lost its beauty. Some folks knock the foliage down when it flowers, this keeps the plants energy going towards spud-production. I’d say bury the bottom of the plants in some more soil. That’ll make them grow more potatoes, you’ll end up with mounds of potatoes.
You wait until the foliage dies! It will be a while. Also, you should be piling dirt around the plants as they get bigger.
If there are spuds, you can eat them. Usually, they don’t really get going until after the flowers die, and they’ll be at maximum size when the foliage dies. If you let the soil dry out after the flowers die, the skins will get tougher and they’ll keep longer, depending on the variety. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but if you’ve hilled up loose soil around the plants, the tubers will grow higher in the mounds, instead of below the ground, and you can reach in and feel around for them. That’s my experience, anyway. YMMV.
Wait until the foliage dies back, you probably don’t have much of anything under there right now. You can also pull one up (gently) to check and see how the potatoes are coming along, then put it back. Also, like the other commenters are saying, you can maximize your yield by piling more dirt around the plants as they continue to grow.
I love growing potatoes. It ain’t glamorous, but it’s ridiculously easy to produce a large crop with little effort.
Wait until the plant dies and turns brown. Although you could pick them now and eat the baby potatoes hidden under the earth. Or you could hill them and encourage even more potatoes to form increasing your yield! If you hill them, again, wait for them to die before harvesting. Hilling requires you to just mound up the soil on each side of the plants. Don’t be afraid to mound up the soil an extra 4 to 6 inches covering the leaves and stems to that height. If you are growing them in containers or raised beds the soil level should have been kept low at planting to facilitate the hilling.
Growing potatoes is satisfying in that there’s lots of lush above-ground foliage, but you don’t get much food return for the space it takes, compared to most other crops.
Depends on what you want. I like to time things around one favorite meal. Just as the potato flowers are fading you should be getting the last of the shelling peas and also have nice young carrots. That is when you carefully root around the edges of the potato plot and swipe some tender new spuds, a few more than you think you will need cuz this is a meal to pig out on, leaving the plant to keep making more spuds for Fall havest. While veggies steam make a cream sauce. Toss it all together with lots of salt n pepper and you have the reason I garden.
Yeah potatoes are awesome. And you can grow them in just about everything. Last year I grew them in some cheap plastic tubs, some old cardboard boxes, and an old malt sack. All three worked great, even though I never fertilized them and rarely watered them. I liked the recyclability of the the tubs, but I also liked the compostability of the boxes. This year I’m reusing the tubs, as well as stacking some old tires, and I have a few in the actual ground as well. Including one escapee from last year that somehow didn’t get sifted out!
Harvest. Soon as the flowers appear you can start rooting around for new potatoes. You can either pull the plant (a little risky) or just try to dig a few spuds out of the mound and see how they’re doing. I’d leave the Yukons alone until the plants die back though, you’ll get nice big ones at the end. This year I planted Rose Finn fingerlings to pull as new potatoes (and get two crops in the season!) and Yukons to pull at the end of the season. Plus a couple purple escapees.
Aphids finally got my overwintered lettuces and the cold season greens have bolted, so I’ve resown some warm weather lettuce but it’ll be a few weeks. Got my Japanese turnips out just as the Flea Beetle larvae started going for them. Released the swarm of ladybugs yesterday. Got to keep the aphids off my hops! (Rule 1: Protect the Beer!) This stupid cold weather is not helping with plant diseases though.
Have new potatoes! They’re the best! You can pick them any time. You might mulch up higher to get them to send out more roots, too.
Goldy, you’re such a fag.
Thanks for all the potato advice folks, this is my second year growing them, and just recently learned about the “potato tower” concept, so the info on hilling is very helpful. Happy eating.
So here’s a question about hilling: Do you pile the dirt over the lower leaves? Do you pick the bottom leaves like you do with tomato starts when you plant them deep?
@5 and 9, I’ve never tried ’em before but probably should. I’ve always heard they’re really, really easy to grow.
In that same vein (and on the topic of Christian nuttiness), did you know that when potatoes were first introduced in Europe, there were preachers who campaigned against them because they encouraged sloth among the peasantry? Apparently, really easy to grow food is immoral or something.