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[Beekissed]

Bee, I remember you saying to wait till plant completely dies down before harvesting. Mine did and yesterday I harvested one of my containers and I still has quite a few of marble size potatoes. They were Yukon's and I did have normal size ones too though.

P.s. I'm not eating any potatoes grown in that comode! haha

Mary

Awful soon to be harvesting spuds...maybe they get done earlier in your climate? I'm not a fan of Yukon Gold spuds as they don't get very big, it seems, and they don't store very well. How do they do for you? Got a pic of your spuds? Do they normally have a lot of little ones hanging on the roots?

I guess that's why I'm not much of an adventurer when it comes to gardening....we normally find something that performs well for us and stick with it for years upon years. My folks and I have only ever planted Kennebecs and Red Pontiacs...probably because that's the kind of seed potatoes you can get around here by the 50 # bag at the feed stores, but mostly because we have large taters that store well and not many of the tiny ones.

My brother experiments, grows the Yukons and other varieties not usually done on large scale in these parts and I've grown a couple of his spuds in with mine on occasion...was not impressed.

 

[digitS']

It took me a long time to get back to potatoes. They were just too available at the soopermarket and there wasn't all this variety for the gardeners. Then, there was: even the garden centers had 10 or so to choose from. I became curious.

Yukon Gold is a favorite for DW and I was frustrated at how poorly it did in production. Yes, I wanted earlies. Something like Viking Purple had over double what YG could grow. Then, I moved the potato patch several miles - almost the same valley soil.

The Yukon Gold do fine! And, my Viking Purple split!! Others did fine, too ... The Vikings healed well and still stored okay. Of course, I have them for another try this year.

I grew Desiree once or twice. That's a very nice potato. Very consistent size and shape. Pretty, too.

What's the problem with growing all you want?

It's just a matter of what diet you want. I've harvested tons of oats and wheat. Grown flour corn and rye, too!

Steve

 

[ninnymary]

Well it did seem like I had a lot of marble size ones but I guess not.
First time with Yukon’s. Usually I plant red ones.

 

[ninnymary]

Lousy yield since I think I planted 4 small ones in each container. I didn't pull the plant by the roots to see where the tiny ones were. I just dug gently so as not to cut any.

Everything seems to ripen sooner here. I know I used to harvest garlic in June and potatoes at this time of year. Picked my first zucchini today.

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

Miss Mary, what size a container you using? There's a fella over in the UK who does spuds in containers and he's getting 10# per container, on average, and that's in the UK, where it's almost certain you'll have blight. I like that he sinks the bottom of his pots into the soil/mulch so that the roots can come in contact with moisture from the ground.

 

[Finding God in the garden]

I'm not sure if anybody saw my question lost in my last post, but is 3-4 weeks before merchant's early harvesting window normal for dying back to occur?

Also, will potato brown spot spead to anything other than potatoes even if it has different symptoms, specifically spinach, lettuce, or green beans? I'm considering planting some fall crops in the same bed after this.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm not sure if anybody saw my question lost in my last post, but is 3-4 weeks before merchant's early harvesting window normal for dying back to occur?

Also, will potato brown spot spead to anything other than potatoes even if it has different symptoms, specifically spinach, lettuce, or green beans? I'm considering planting some fall crops in the same bed after this.

I'm not familiar with that variety, so I couldn't really say...I'd check under them and see if you have a good harvest of mature sized potatoes under those vines...then you'll know if it's a normal die off or not. Nor have I ever had anything called potato brown spot before, so that's out of my wheelhouse on gardening as well.

Usually anything that will effect potatoes will also effect tomatoes, but not sure about the beans. Shouldn't bother the lettuce and spinach.

 

[Finding God in the garden]

I'm not familiar with that variety, so I couldn't really say...I'd check under them and see if you have a good harvest of mature sized potatoes under those vines...then you'll know if it's a normal die off or not. Nor have I ever had anything called potato brown spot before, so that's out of my wheelhouse on gardening as well.

Usually anything that will effect potatoes will also effect tomatoes, but not sure about the beans. Shouldn't bother the lettuce and spinach.

Anything I need to be careful of when checking underneath a live plant? Is there generally any sort of normal pattern that dying off follows (like from upper leaves to lower leaves or from the tips of the leaves toward the stem or the sides of the leaves to the middle)? Well apparently brown spot is a relative of early blight so probably most things that are true of one are true of the other. Early blight just has larger spots than brown spot.

Ok thanks

 

[Ridgerunner]

When I check under the plants I gently dig with my fingers in from the side, feeling for potatoes. I call that groveling for potatoes. The early ones are called new potatoes, the skin is pretty thin and they have a nice flavor. Just wash those well, you don't have to peel them the skin is so thin. If you dig them too early they don't store well but new potatoes make a nice meal.

I can't remember any specific pattern to dying off. Going off memory (which is dangerous for me) it just seems like the whole plant just starts dying and turning brown. When that happens I consider it time to dig them. When the top dies they aren't growing any more anyway.

 

[ninnymary]

Miss Mary, what size a container you using? There's a fella over in the UK who does spuds in containers and he's getting 10# per container, on average, and that's in the UK, where it's almost certain you'll have blight. I like that he sinks the bottom of his pots into the soil/mulch so that the roots can come in contact with moisture from the ground.

I'm using the nursery containers where fruit trees come in. I think they may be 15 gal. They are a good size.

Mary