Yeah, I know Frank...big deal And we will be eating them for supper tomorrow night or maybe tonight. I have a chicken pot pie that my oldest daughter made for us that we are planning to have for supper tonight but there is nothing wrong with celebrating my first ever potato harvest and having more potatoes on the side. I know there are many more in the soil, I grew them in an old wheelbarrow. There were lots of babies coming up with these but I left them there. How long can I leave the potatoes in the ground? I was thinking of just digging up a few for meals when needed for a while. My first ever Potato harvest..Red Norland ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden )
Potatoes are the one veggie I have wanted to grow for many years but just never figured I could because I didn't have the space for long rows. Then I started reading about growing them in containers, that I could try. I did try a couple of years ago but that was during the hottest and driest summer of 2011...it was a total failure. I also have some Yukon Gold out in really large containers that I have been mounding more dirt on as the stems grow but the greenery is still going strong so they aren't ready to dig up.
I usually harvest mine Toni once the foliage begins to die back. I pull one plant and check on the size of the tatties before digging them all up. Your first lifting looks great and I hope they taste as good as they look. Congraulations on your first potato crop. :-D
Congrats on your spuds, Toni. They look smashing. I have left my spuds in the ground a long time ...even after the foliage has died back. Some spud types can become of a lesser quality if left in too long. I have been tending to eat my spuds younger and younger the past few years. I have kept potatoes in a clamp over winter, so being in the ground will not harm most types per se. Show some pics of your Youkon Goldies when you lift them, Oké?
Toni, we dig ours as soon as the foliage dies back, but ours are in the ground and will deteriorate if left. In a container, I don't think you have to worry about nematodes or critters in the earth that will make holes in potatoes. We are trying Kennebecs this year, and so far, they are doing well. We dug half of them in the first week of June, and the other half are coming up this weekend. We planted our main crop as LaSoda Reds.
I have no idea how many I will finally find in the wheelbarrow but I know we will not be able to eat them all before they start sprouting and turn on me. Since I don't have a cool basement or root cellar to store them in would it be best to leave them in ground or wrapped in newspaper and kept in the bottom drawer in the fridge?
Great job, Toni. you can quit piling the dirt on the Yukons, though. They only need enough to keep the tubers from being exposed to sunlight and turning green. I wondered that last year when I grew them and this year I learned it for sure from a potato forum. Much less work to not keep piling it on.
Toni, if you like mashed potatoes, and who doesn't, you can cook them and freeze them. We did 2 years ago and they tasted great.
