Harvesting Potatoes

Harvesting Potatoes
- it's what you've been waiting for -

Red Duke Of York gave a lovely crop from my potato barrel

Harvesting Potatoes - lift by flat tined fork - grasp plant to ease up whole bunch

The long-awaited day for harvesting potatoes comes - you feel well-satisfied and your family and friends are proud of you. And you'll rest a little easier knowing you have good food in store.

Don't forget that 'new' potatoes can be taken from earlies or maincrop. The first 'new' potatoes are much sought after and expensive to buy. As the potatoes age their qualities change. This can affect their cooking time and varieties used for salads may also become suitable to roast...

This page has information on:- harvesting potatoes 'Earlies' & 'New', from containers, raised beds, hills or ridges - on harvesting potatoes for maincrop, - and late season harvesting potatoes from potato bags, tubs and barrels and about storing your crop.

And check the main plot for further practical information on potato gardening.

Follow this link to find potato barrels, bags, and tubs for growing in.

Harvesting Potatoes 'New'

'Early' potatoes take from 60 to 90 days to crop and 'second earlies' 90 to 120 days to crop. A few 'new' potatoes should be ready at about the time the plant flowers. These are about the size of a hen's egg.

You can find them by lifting up the sheeting or mulch on a raised bed. Usually a few are resting nice and clean on the soil surface. Take about 2 per plant when needed.

'NEW' POTATOES FROM BAGS, TUBS AND BARRELS
With potato bags, tubs and pots carefully excavate the compost surface away to find them growing beneath. The potato barrel has lifting sides that give you direct access to the new spuds inside. Some patio planters are made like wrap around rolls that unfasten down the side to give you access and make harvesting potatoes easy.

Don't be dissappointed if at first you don't find much. More potatoes and bigger ones should appear a little later. End of season harvesting is described below.

HARVESTING POTATOES 'NEW' FROM RIDGES AND HILLS
If you've grown your 'early' potatoes in ridges or hills in the garden you can carefully scrape away the soil to find the tubers that are worth harvesting as 'new' potatoes. Often they will poke through the ridge but always keep them well covered to prevent them greening up.

A planting knife or narrow trowel is all you need for uncovering and lifting 'new' potatoes. Find them here.

Don't forget that you can also harvest 'new' potatoes from a maincrop before the end of season harvest.

PICK MORE SPUDS...
Embryo potatoes waiting to enlarge into eatable tubers - my potato harvest could have had a bigger

When you continue to pick 'new' potatoes a few at a time there's a good chance that smaller 'embryo' potatoes will take up the lead and grow bigger. All those tiny spuds that you pick out end of season could grow up to proper size - yes, a bigger crop.
Find more below on harvesting potatoes end of season from bags, tubs and barrels, and Christmas potatoes.
Check here for availability of late cropping seed potatoes.

Harvesting Maincrop Potatoes

Your maincrop potatoes should be ready in about 120 to 140 days. The potato flowering time usually indicates that they are swelling up.

You may have already sampled some of your maincrop as 'new' potatoes as described above. But by the end of season the bulk of your maincrop needs to be lifted from garden soil into store.

First cut down the potato haulms (stalks) and remove to your compost heap. If blighted you may choose to burn them. I don't think blight spores can survive the winter cold - except for a few worrying mutant strains.

Now leave the potatoes in the ground for 10 to 14 days. This is to prevent blight spores from contaminating the tubers and causing your potatoes to rot in storage - it's also a good reason for ridging up or growing under sheet mulch so as to protect the tubers.

For harvesting potatoes you need a dry day to dry the tubers on a riddle for a few hours - I normally scrub the soil off them first. see below for storing potatoes

Most gardeners advise digging up potato rows from the side of the row using a flat tined fork. Short handled forks are the easiest - check this U.K. potato fork. You move the plant into the trench. Grasp the remaining neck of stalk to help lift the plant whole.

But I usually work differently. Starting from the end of the row I dig down and move the soil behind me taking the tubers out as I go. The exposed soil ridge looks like a quarry face. It's probably not the easiest way to do it - but I love gardening.

You should remove all tubers from the garden soil even tiny ones, otherwise they will attract pests.

Handle potatoes with care to avoid bruising them.

END OF SEASON POTATO HARVESTING FROM BAGS, TUBS OR BARRELS
When harvesting potatoes from containers I tip it upside down into a large polythene bag. Then I scrape the soil back into the empty container while picking out the tubers.

You'll want to store the end of season harvests. With late season Christmas potatoes in containers you could leave them outside in their spud tub or bag and simply cover it over. You won't be able to pick and choose between them and the larger ones will probably be at the bottom.

Storing Potatoes

Leave your spuds outside on a riddle to dry in the sun for a few hours. I turn mine over half way through. I class the tubers into different sizes as well as clean / healthy and damaged or infected. Diseased or damaged potatoes won't keep. Look out for white furry growths and dark bruise like areas. Cut a few open to check inside.

They say 'early' potatoes don't store as well as your maincrop. However, I've stored 'second early' varieties beyond Christmas in good condition. I've now found that tuber size makes little difference - but good keepers are preferred.

Next I laid them out in my living room covered by sacking to keep them in darkness. (Would you believe they were there for a few weeks?) The warmer conditions may be important to cure the potatoes for storage.

Then I remove the crop to hessian or burlap sacks to store in a dark cool ventilated garage. Brown paper sacks are not well ventilated. Mine have kept well.

I also have a smaller bag that excludes the light. It has a handy velcro fastened lid and handles to lift. This spud bag serves me to have a select number in the kitchen ready for use.

Check the spuds regularly. Any wiff of ammonia or putrid smell indicates rot. Don't ignore it. Root down until you get the offending tubers out. Any that have been contaminated with dripping ooze can be washed and used immediately.

One last thing - storing potatoes in the fridge is not recommended as it causes the starch to turn into sugars. That means if you use them for chips you get a brown color when the sugar caramalises - actually I think I will try that.

Check these links.