This is my first attempt at potatoes and it has gone pretty well so far. I planted about 1.5 pounds of each of the following varieties - red pontiac and yukon gold. The plants have grown well, although a few of them didn't come up. They have been bothered by flea beetles, but are still doing fine. I think the red pontiacs are ready to harvest because there a just a couple of flowers and the edges are all turning brown. Just to see what was going on underneath the plants, I dug (more with my hands than a shovel), directly underneath the plant. I got four potatoes that were directly attached to the roots. I used a small shovel to dig around the outer perimeter (outside of where the leaf span) and didn't see anything; however, I didn't deep - just stayed very shallow. Do I need to dig further or wider or are there really only 4 potatoes under each plant? Also, I remounded the plant back up because there were tiny potatoes on the roots. If I leave this till frost, will I get seed potatoes for next year or even more potatoes. Or, will the plant just die since it was already starting to wither. I know, I think I am making this overcomplicated, but it seems a bit more detailed than just digging them up. Thanks for reading this and for all of your help.

Julie

I too have been rooting around under a few of my plants, and I am not finding anything.

A couple of questions, did you hill your potatoes, or let them grow a bit, and then cover them nearly up again to get them to grow more. If you did that, you should have potatoes deeper down. If not, it might be the four that you found.

If you cook them by steaming the little ones, just scrubbed, not peeled, then top them with a little cream and parsley.... well you won't be too disappointed, and will plant them next year in hopes of a bigger crop

Some plants have more than others....let them go a week or two and try again, ive seen that myself, but I hill mine alot.

I hilled them when they were about 12 inches. Should I continue to hill both of them even though the red potatoes are turning brown on the edges? Do you continually hill the potatoes all season?

They should always be covered. Sunlight causes them to turn green which is not edible. Yes, continue covering if needed, depending on the variety you planted, i.e., for instance mine are 90 days from planting. Also about 18" covered. Let the vegetation die back after flowering.

What if you don't get to flowering? As in (I am sure you are all tired of hearing about it)grasshoppers!

I dug around one planting and in the top layer there are no potatoes. Will there be potatoes deeper down? I must say, I hilled them with compost, and there are happy worms in there, and as soil it looks good! But no potatoes. Do they have to bloom to make potatoes? mk

I can't say for sure about the flowers, just what has happened to me. In the past I had few flowers and few potatoes. But this year I have LOTS of flowers. So I am hoping for a larger crop Others have said the flowers are not necessary for tubers.

I haven't checked the ground under the plants yet but the suspence is killing me...I will be checking this w/e. It has been just over 2 months for them and they develop in 90 or so.

Potatoes can form anywhere between the planted seed to the ground surface Is what I have read. But my experience has been that they are shallow developers and will mostly be near the surface.

Some varieties bloom, some don't. Whether they bloom or not has no effect on the formation of tubers.

Here, I let them grow until the vines are killed by freeze.

If they are healthy, keep hilling them up and you will get even more potatoes.

You can also mulch them deeply and you'll get taters in the mulch.

Thanks for all of the great information. You guys are the best; I read a lot, but usually get much better advice here.

I have another question about potatoes. I notice some of my plants have fruit on it. They look like small tomatoes on it. Does the frut contain seeds in them. Also will this affect the quality of the tubers. How would I harvest and store the seeds. Not to mention how would I go about growing potatoes from true seeds. Thanks

I've been digging potatoes to make potato salads. I've had to go deep to find them this year and the potatoes are big, not a lot of small ones. I take my digging fork along the edges of my rows to expose the potatoes. Most of mine are about the depth of the fork... about 8 inches. I just snap them off the root push the dirt back. Most of my varieties are flowering now or finishing up and they have lots of potatoes but deep. I just dug about 5 pounds last night.

Some varieties grow those seed pods that look like tomatoes, (makes sense, they're in the same family) and some don't. You could probably grow potatoes from them but since potatoes are all so hybridized who knows what you'd get. Might be an interesting experiment though.

Just ignore those 'berries'. They fall off and the plant start to wilt and cure. You can grow potatoes from 'true seed' but no one does. And don't eat the 'berries'.

I ignore those too...once the plant starts to die...dig around the plant..so you dont skewer any tubers.


I planted more seed potatoe in July for fall potatoes.After the garlic was gone.

Just wanted to update everyone. I dug my potatoes and have over 100 potatoes, which I thought was pretty good for my first try. Thanks for your help.

That's great! This is my first year trying them in the ground and it worked out much better for me this way instead of trying to do them in containers. Now, what do I do with them? I was going to keep them in the basement but what shoudl I store them in. A paper bag? Can they be stacked or do they need to be in a single layer?