Potatoes Q

[Argonaut]

Never grown potatoes before ... looking like they like the soil, as they seem to get bigger each day.

Planted 30m2 of Charlotte for 'second earlier' and Desiree as main crop.

All were repeatedly earthed up until mound was at least 400mm high.


The Charlotte starting flowering this week .... when can I start pulling some of these ? ..... obviously would like them as salad potatoes, but not sure if I have to wait for flowers to die back, foliage to die or whatever ?

Tips welcome.

[maypril]

Hi Argonaut, welcome to the vine.

You should really wait until the leaves have started to die off before harvesting (Roughly the end of July). That'll give you the best yield per plant.

However, as you have so many, you might want to try an early harvest as long as you don't mind really small potatoes and a low yield. Once your plants have been flowering for at least two weeks, dig a plant up and see what you find. You won't get a huge amount, but enough for a nice treat!

[gojiberry]

What sort of return do you want from your potatoes? I dug a root yesterday and got 17 small potatoes which was enough for me and the OH so I was happy on that return especially as the seed was self saved and I'm not sure if British new spuds are available yet. However if someone only planted 6 potatoes and it cost them £3/£4 for the seed, then it would have been a very poor return. So you have to make your own mind up as to when to harvest. I think a good way is to work out the weeks from planting and Charlotte need 12/14 weeks growing.

Ian