When Do You Know Potatoes Are Ready to Pick From the Ground
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Knowing when to harvest potatoes is based on whether they're an early potato or maincrop, time in the ground, and what happens to their foliage and flowers
One of the easiest edibles to start off with is the humble white potato. They're relatively low-maintenance, can help cultivate the soil, and volition also suppress whatsoever weeds that try to compete with them. They're also very fun to dig up and eat! Only when are potatoes ready to harvest? This is probably the most taken for granted kitchen gardening noesis you'll notice. Seasoned gardeners will 'just know' when the plant is set up. When you're only starting out it's a scrap of a head-scratcher.
The answer lies in which type you lot've planted. The vast majority available will fit into the categories of 'First Early', 'Second Early', and 'Maincrop'. Read on to know what to wait for when it's fourth dimension to harvest potatoes.
Get-go Earlies
In my opinion, the best blazon of potato to grow is i that fits into the 'First Early' category. These include the Red Duke of York, Lady Christl, Arran Pilot, and scores more. This year I've grown Pentland Javelin which is a blazon that matures slightly later than other Offset Earlies.
'First Earlies' are one of the primeval garden crops to mature. Yous plant them from St Patricks Day to mid-March so dig them upward effectually x-12 weeks later on. Typically from June to July but sometimes earlier. They're easy to grow, don't tend to suffer blight, taste tender and delicious, and fun to dig upward in early summer.
Wait for potato flowers
The fashion you tend to know that outset earlies are ready is by their flowers. Early potatoes mostly produce bloom buds that sometimes flower and sometimes don't. It's time to dig up your tender, homegrown potatoes when the buds drib or the flowers that do bloom begin to fade. Some other expert indication is seeing unopened flower buds dropping from the plant. At this point, the leaves volition notwithstanding exist greenish only some will begin fading to yellowish. The potatoes from earlies will be almost the size of an egg with skins and so tender that they'll melt in your mouth.
If you're not sure nearly if they're gear up, gently dig around a plant and look for potatoes. If they're the size of an egg or larger, yous can kickoff harvesting. Kickoff earlies left in the ground volition continue to abound. That means that if you're not quite sure if they're set up to harvest, just leave them in a little while longer. Not all early potatoes are great for storing but some are, and so practice your enquiry earlier y'all buy potato varieties.
Second Earlies
Potatoes that fall into the '2d Early' category include Nicola, Maris Peer, Jazzy, and Kestrel. They differ only in one way from first earlies — they mature about three weeks later.
As for planting times, you can get them in the footing at the same time every bit first earlies but it's better to await. The traditional day to plant them in most of the UK (zone vii-eight) is the get-go day of spring, in late March. Only think about it, if you lot plant them at least two weeks later on your beginning earlies then the harvests are staggered by five weeks. That gives you time to eat your first crop before another massive harvest is set.
Use the aforementioned indications for harvest every bit showtime earlies and wait for bloom drib. By the way, how gorgeous are potato flowers? They come in all different colors and potatoes were actually grown in Europe as ornamentals before they were grown as food crops.
Maincrop Potatoes
Remember of a massive baking tater and information technology's most likely a maincrop, sometimes chosen storing potatoes. Varieties in the U.k. include Cara, Rex Edward, Pink Fir Apple, and Purple Majesty. In the USA, they'll be Russet varieties.
Maincrop potatoes are planted at the same time or up to a calendar month later every bit second early on potatoes. They need a lot more time to grow — most 20 weeks. Over the summer they swell and abound resulting in harvests big in both size and quantity.
Though you tin harvest many main-crop potatoes as earlies, or carefully dig a few out after the plant has flowered, I think it's all-time to grow types specifically bred to be earlies. They'll crop earlier and be bred for flavor and texture equally an early. Leave maincrops to grow into the biggies they're supposed to and store them for use over the winter.
Harvesting Maincrop Potatoes
Y'all harvest main crops in late summer, typically in Baronial to September and you know the time is correct when much of the foliage on all your plants brainstorm to turn yellowish. It will then shrivel up and turn brown and dry out, and eventually only shriveled leaves and stems will exist left. At whatever time during this procedure, cut the plant off well-nigh an inch from the ground and leave the tubers in the footing for a couple of weeks before excavation them up. This helps harden up the peel and makes them amend for storing.
This is natural dice-back and will exist different from a affliction. If you see black spots on the leaf or if the die-off is only affecting some of your plants so you should investigate potato diseases. If the bug are happening earlier the 20-week mark then it'due south too an indication that something is wrong.
Storing Maincrops
Unlike early potatoes, you can store maincrops for months at a time. First, you should dry them completely before putting them in bags or boxes for storage. Any wet areas could introduce rot, or really be rot. Spread them out in a garage or greenhouse, or outside in the sun, turning them over after one side is dry. Leaving potatoes in the sun for whatsoever longer than a day or two can cause them to plough green. Pocket-sized amounts of green are harmless but if a tater turns dark light-green, you want to avoid eating it.
Store maincrop potatoes in a cool garage or shed and make sure to swallow the best ones first. A friend once tried to save the best ones for concluding simply by the time he got to them, the mice had already had their plow. If you're looking for recipe ideas for larger 2nd earlies, try Hasselback potatoes. With their tender skin, you don't even accept to peel them.
Source: https://lovelygreens.com/when-to-harvest-potatoes/
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