Are my potatoes ready for harvesting?

[Spudnik181]

Hello, New member trying to improve my green fingers I don't have a garden so I'm experimenting on what I can grow on my windowsill. It's not the sunniest position but it's all I have at the moment, gets around 6 hours of direct sunlight a day.

I put 2 Rudolph seed potatoes in a 26 Litre bucket and slowly mounded the soil around it as the sprouts grew. This was roughly end of March and they've grown to around 2m (probably due to lack of sunlight and warmth of being indoors). They failed to support their own weight pretty early on so I supported them with string.

It looked like it was starting to flower, little bud like things appeared 2 weeks ago but then they just stopped growing. A few lateral stems have been yellowing and falling off the main stems some days but they bulk of the plant still seems to be green and healthy. What's confusing me more is that new stems have recently started sprouting out of the soil.

I water it a moderate amount nearly every day as the direct sun dries the top of the soil pretty quick and give it a heavy water once a week to make sure the bottom stays wet. Should I stop watering and just let it die or keep at it for a few more weeks?

Attached some pictures. First photo I took a week ago, it's already gotten taller. It reaches the ceiling now. Second is what I thought was a flower bud that still looks the same 2 weeks on. 3rd are the new stems coming out of the soil that have grown pretty quick and starting to leaf.

[nickdub]

Have a furtle around in the soil with your fingers to see if you can find and tubers, and if you do, see what size they are.

[It never rains..it pours]

As Nickdub says have a careful look with fingers, if harvest bigger ones carefully then the others at marble size grow on. I know it works as did the same with my very earlies in pots in greenhouse.

If you keep it for these to fill then it will probably need feeding

Sounds like you have the watering spot on, it was the mistake I made last year not watering enough and got zero output, fortunatly Pots put me right for this year

[Spudnik181]

thanks for the reply folks.

I used potting soil for the whole thing, so it's not as mulchy as it should be. Only realised after I filled most of the bucket so figured just stick with it. Would rooting around the bucket for tubers not damage the root system? Or just be careful while unearthing the tubers?

The watering thing is confusing me, advice ranges from water the way I do now vs once a week. A friend of mine planted the same potatoes in her garden around the same time and her's are more normal looking and have started to flower. Is mine just struggling to reach maturity because of the poor light conditions?

So if I find large potatoes, just harvest them and small ones, give the plant a feed? Or feed it regardless since the plant doesn't seem close to flowering or dying?

[nickdub]

thanks for the reply folks.

I used potting soil for the whole thing, so it's not as mulchy as it should be. Only realised after I filled most of the bucket so figured just stick with it. Would rooting around the bucket for tubers not damage the root system? Or just be careful while unearthing the tubers?

The watering thing is confusing me, advice ranges from water the way I do now vs once a week. A friend of mine planted the same potatoes in her garden around the same time and her's are more normal looking and have started to flower. Is mine just struggling to reach maturity because of the poor light conditions?

So if I find large potatoes, just harvest them and small ones, give the plant a feed? Or feed it regardless since the plant doesn't seem close to flowering or dying?

Its possible to damage the roots, but if you start at the outside and work in you ought to find any tubers before you get to the main roots, if they are large enough for what you want pull them out and the plant will grow on relatively undisturbed.

The light levels in a windowsill as you have makes growing some things difficult or impossible - I'm a bit doubtful if the potato experiment will yield much, but its definitely worth trying. If you fancy a different plant next year someone will have good suggestions if you ask.

I'd continue to feed and water regularly guided by how the plant looks and how the compost feels.

[Spudnik181]

Its possible to damage the roots, but if you start at the outside and work in you ought to find any tubers before you get to the main roots, if they are large enough for what you want pull them out and the plant will grow on relatively undisturbed.

The light levels in a windowsill as you have makes growing some things difficult or impossible - I'm a bit doubtful if the potato experiment will yield much, but its definitely worth trying. If you fancy a different plant next year someone will have good suggestions if you ask.

I'd continue to feed and water regularly guided by how the plant looks and how the compost feels.

Makes sense to me, I forgot to water it this morning so I'll have a feel around when I get back from work tonight. I was thinking carrots or tomatoes next with a helping hand from a DIY LED grow light.

Still don't understand why new stems are coming out of the soil though. I was expecting the plant to start yellowing and dying off, not growing new stems and leaves

[nickdub]

Makes sense to me, I forgot to water it this morning so I'll have a feel around when I get back from work tonight. I was thinking carrots or tomatoes next with a helping hand from a DIY LED grow light.

Still don't understand why new stems are coming out of the soil though. I was expecting the plant to start yellowing and dying off, not growing new stems and leaves

I think my recommendation on the "carrots or tomatoes" plans would be to post a separate question and see what others have successfully grown on a window-sill.

As for what the plant is up to with new growth, these things link to a range of factors one key influence is daylight hours and when the days begin to get shorter.

[It never rains..it pours]

Makes sense to me, I forgot to water it this morning so I'll have a feel around when I get back from work tonight. I was thinking carrots or tomatoes next with a helping hand from a DIY LED grow light.

Still don't understand why new stems are coming out of the soil though. I was expecting the plant to start yellowing and dying off, not growing new stems and leaves

It appears Rudolph is a main crop potato, which may explain why its not flowered yet, most of us on here are harvesting earlies or second earlies at present

[Mikey]

You are roughly 10 weeks from planting, normally you'll find small tubers on a main crop from about 12 weeks but they may need about 16 weeks for you to get some larger spuds.

As this is quite an open understory you could underplant the potato with something that is quick growing like some oriental salad greens, rocket, or even some peas to get a quick pea shoot salad crop by the time that your potatoes are fully ready to dig up.

I generally wait for the bottom leaves to have turned yellow before starting to dig up my spuds.

[keat63]

This is an interesting thread in the respect that I have an area in my flower bed in the garden where we once tried to grow a few spuds.

It seems that a few potatoes got left in the ground and sprouted.

Yesterday, I decided to dig these up, to maybe give me an indication as to what could be happening to my potatoes down on the lotty.

I was very surprised to see a decent number of small (new) potatoes.

I've seen no flowering on these wild spuds (or those on the lotty for that matter), so never cosidered that there might actually be something worth digging up.

These will no doubt have been a little more advanced than the lotty being in the ground all winter, They had a head start.

Now I need to try and work out, when we planted those on the allotment.

[Spudnik181]

I had a root around and didn't really see much in the way of potatoes but there were a lot of roots so I didn't want to rummage too deep. Figured I've waited this long, may as well see it through to the end.

So far a handful of flowers have bloomed on one of the sprouts, the the others haven't changed much other than dropping some yellow branches / leaves. Think I got about 4 more weeks before all of it dies off and I can see how much of nothing have I got. Definitely not sunny enough.

Turned my attention to propagating basil cuttings at the moment. Seems to be working well

[Snoop Puss]

^Don't panic. The likelihood of getting nothing is pretty low.

You say it's not sunny enough. Where are you based?

[Squingy]

I was in a similar position, and got a relatively cheap long fluorescent light and taped it on the wall nearby, leaving it on some extra hours. Ideally you'd want a grow light but they are a bit pricey, even on ebay/ Aliexpress.
I still use this light in early spring for my seedlings.

As for the shoots, I read somewhere online this can happen if it's too hot. I'll post the link if I find it.

I don't think you'll get nothing.

Good luck.

Edit: sorry forgot to answer yr question. I don't think you should stop watering and let it die. Just carry on as normal until it actually dies, there is green on the plant, and some light, chances are you'll get something.

[burnie]

Already lifting Charlottes that are in full flower and I was surprised how big the average potatoes were, not baking size, but too big to pass as Jersey Royals lol.

[Squingy]

According to here
Select Potato Varieties
If it's too hot the stolens, which should've become potato tubers, turn upward into leaf shoots instead.
Hope that cleared the confusion.