This is my third year planting potatoes. This year for the first time, only two (2) have bloomed. I did everything that I've done in the past, will I still get potatoes?My raised beds aren't doing as well as usual either. We've had a lot of bad air quality days. We got a lot of smoke from Canada, in the beginning, of the season. I'm assuming that the air quality has something to do with that. Thanks for any help.
Don't worry about the blooming thing. You will still get potatoes if the vines don't die out early. That is the main thing.
Mine didn't bloom either Willow, but the plants were healthy. I dug a hill to see what was happening and I had a lot of potatoes. I found no flowers made it a little harder to keep track of what was going on under there, and I would have actually dug my early potatoes sooner. (Next time I'll keep track of my calendar rather than focussing on the flowers). It may be worth digging in from the side and feeling around in there to see if you have spuds if your're not sure. You can cover them back up again if they are not ready. A few years ago I didn't have flowers also, but some searching found that the slugs and bugs ate them.
There are good suggestions above. Don’t sweat the blooming. Just know that spuds are ready to harvest around 90 days after planting. My potatos did not all bloom this year either…they never do. But I’ll tell you what I do: around the 90 day mark, I take a trowel and carefully dig down under the plant. After a certain depth, I use hands only. Too small—I close the soil, but if they are large enough, I will take some for that first meal. I never take all of the spuds out all at once, unless there is phytophthora infecting the leaves. I find the flavour better this way. Good luck, and please show piccies when you harvest. Also tell the sorts you ar growing this year.
I usually get Huckleberry and Yukon Gold. This year I got those as well as Raspberry (red with dark pink flesh), Blackberry (a purple variety), and Wild Purple (it has variegated purple and white flesh). Each year we try a few different varieties, but my staples are Yukon and Huckleberry Gold. I'm not sure how to upload pictures from my phone. I know I did it before, but I had a laptop then (2020 I wonder why I had a laptop). And it was weird I had to do something (I don't remember what) to post it. I couldn't just post the picture.
Willow— Frank can help you with uploading pics. It is good to see that you are trying new types and finding favs. I do love a good spud.
Okay, so we had a really hard rain night before last and when I went out the next morning I saw a nice big raspberry potato had been uncovered. This wasn't one of the plants that bloomed so they must be doing okay.... Yeah! All the plants seemed to have faired well. And I didn't have to water!
