Potatoes Grow on Roots in the Ground Easy Harvest

Potatoes are one of the easiest vegetables to abound producing heavy yields of tasty tubers when planted in garden beds and containers. Plus, there'south so many awesome potato varieties to grow – from fingerlings to russets – in a rainbow of colors.But as the crop is produced below ground, it's hard to tell when the tubers are ready to dig. So, how Practice you lot know when to harvest potatoes?

Don't wash potatoes later harvesting unless you're virtually to eat them. Instead, cure them for ane to two weeks and then shop in a absurd, dark place.

When to harvest potatoes?

Harvesting potatoes is so much fun, even the kids will desire to help. Information technology's similar digging for cached treasure – treasure you can eat! There are two principal types of potatoes: new potatoes and storage potatoes, and both harvesting time and techniques differ betwixt the 2 types.Because I want both new potatoes for summertime cooking and storage potatoes for fall and winter, I plant at least one bed of each. Figuring out when to harvest potatoes can be a claiming for new gardeners, just once you know the basics, timing the harvest is a snap!

New Potatoes –All potatoes tin be new potatoes if harvested when the tubers are even so small and thin-skinned, virtually fifty to 55 days from planting the seed potatoes for early maturing varieties. The first sign that new potatoes have formed is the advent of the flowers. At that point, experience free to start harvesting from the potato plants. For a long harvest of new potatoes, stagger your seed potato plantings or establish early and tardily maturing varieties. That fashion you can enjoy tender new potatoes from late June through August.

Storage Potatoes –Storage potatoes, also called primary-ingather potatoes, are ready at the end of the growing season when the foliage has turned xanthous and begun to dry, frequently afterwards a frost. At this point they have reached maturity. In my zone 5B garden I harvest my storage potatoes in late September through October. Some gardeners cutting dorsum the leaves while others allow them to die back naturally. Either way, the tubers need to be left in the ground for about two more weeks. This allows the skins to thicken up and results in improve storage quality.

Don't be shy about trying some of the awesome varieties of potatoes available through catalogs and in garden centres. Caribe is a gorgeous purple skinned diversity with vivid white flesh. it's not a long storage blazon, simply makes a wonderful new tater.

How to harvest potatoes

Pick a dry mean solar day to harvest potatoes as wet tin spread disease and rot. What's the all-time way to harvest? Carefully! Try to avoid piercing or slicing the potatoes when digging the tubers. If your spade does skid, eat damaged potatoes right away. I notice it handy to keep a bowl nearby for damaged tubers which and so head directly to the kitchen. Potato scab is a common potato disease and any affected potatoes are also taken to the kitchen equally they may non shop well.

New Potatoes –When the plants begin to flower, usually sometime in July, you can starting time harvesting new potatoes by reaching into the side of the hill and taking a few tubers from each plant. I use a gloved mitt, not a tool, for this task as I don't want to harm the plants and I want to keep my hands (relatively) clean. Once you've harvested a few new potatoes, button the soil dorsum in identify and mound it around the plants.

Storage Potatoes –To harvest storage potatoes, insert a garden fork virtually a foot away from the plant and gently elevator the root mass. Shovels may also be used. There may even so be a few potatoes in the ground, so use a gloved hand to feel around for any missed tubers. Once harvested, gently brush off caked on soil and permit them to dry out off for an hour or and then outdoors. Exercise not wash the tubers.

Harvesting potatoes from containers and straw beds

If harvesting new potatoes from a container or spud grow bag, reach into the soil to feel around for the tubers, taking but a few from each plant at any one fourth dimension. Later harvesting new potatoes from in-ground or container plants, feed them with a fish emulsion fertilizer to encourage healthy growth and more tubers. Container grown storage potatoes tin be easily harvested by dumping the container onto a tarp or in a wheelbarrow. Sift through the soil with your hands to take hold of all of the tubers. Learn how to abound potatoes in containers in this brusk video.

If harvesting potatoes from a bed mulched with straw, use a garden fork to carefully lift off the layer of harbinger. Most of the tubers will have formed in the harbinger mulch and exist dirt-free. Gather them up for curing.

Gear up the soil for next year

Once the potatoes have been harvested, I sow a comprehend crop or add a source of organic matter, like manure or compost, to the pinnacle of the bed. The autumn and wintertime weather condition will work it down into the height few inches of soil. If yous're non sure of your soil pH, this is besides an ideal time for a soil test. It's besides important to consider crop rotation and continue track of where you grew white potato family crops, like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Planting these crops on a 3 year rotation cycle can reduce pests and soil-borne diseases.

Kids love to help dig potatoes in the garden – and they may even eat their veggies!

How to shop potatoes

Before they tin be stored, potatoes demand to get through a curing process. This helps the peel thicken upwardly and extends the storage life of the tubers. To cure potatoes, lay them on newspaper, trays, or cardboard in a cool, nighttime spot (50 to 60 F, 10 to 15 C) with loftier humidity for one to ii weeks. Pick a location that offers adept air circulation.

Once cured, move the potatoes (removing any that take signs of harm) to bushel baskets, paper-thin boxes (with ventilation holes poked in the sides), low baskets, or brown paper bags. You tin can also observe multiple drawer harvest storage at many garden supply stores. Don't pile them too deeply, however as that can encourage rot to spread. Cover containers with paper-thin or sheets of newspaper to cake calorie-free. Lite turns the tubers green and green potatoes contain solanine, a toxic alkaloid.

The best storage area for potatoes

The storage area should be cooler than the curing site and be dark and well-ventilated. I utilize a corner of my basement, but a root cellar is all-time if you have one. Y'all can also store potatoes in a garage, just it should stay above freezing. Aim for the platonic temperature of 40 to 45 F (four.5 to 7 C) with high humidity. Under platonic conditions, storage potatoes tin can retain quality for six to eight months in long-term storage. Check tubers regularly and remove any that evidence signs of rot or shrivelling.

The thin skin that makes new potatoes and so highly-seasoned limits their storage life to weeks not months. Therefore, savour new potatoes presently after harvesting them.

For a tutorial on when to harvest potatoes and how to exercise it correct, bank check out this video by Savvy'due south Jessica Walliser.

Practice yous have any tips to add on when to harvest potatoes? Leave them in the comments below.

For more on growing potatoes in a garden, bank check out these awesome articles:

• Growing potatoes in pocket-sized spaces with 7 easy steps
• How to institute seed potatoes in gardens, containers, and harbinger
• Build a potato bin with compost and autumn leaves

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Source: https://savvygardening.com/when-to-harvest-potatoes/

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