A fellow nurseryman once expect meif maturate Irish potato was deserving it . Why squander the space , labor the deep , mound the hills , interfere with love apple rotation , and risk battling with white potato glitch for a veggie that we often experience in room that are far from special ?
Here ’s why :
Recently harvested potato have a tenderheartedness , a slick texture , and a depth of flavor that micturate me see forwards to growing these crop every year .
Photo Credit: Alex Jones.
And even a low outer space like a prove bed or alarge containercan yield a respectable return onall sort of potato varietiesin dazzling colors , with a multifariousness of uses in the kitchen .
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So you sprouted , cut , and dried your seed spud in the fountain . You dig your trenches , mound your soil , watered , and wait .
Photo Credit: Alex Jones.
You watched as the sprouts grew into lush greenish stems . And when the stems start to yellow and die back , you sleep with it was sentence to hit !
countenance ’s get down to the business of dig up up those spuds .
What You Will Learn
How to Harvest
you could use heavy tools like shovel and pitchforks or bridge player tools like trowel and chela to harvest , or – if your dirt is shallow and soft enough , as mine is – your garden - gloved hands .
Using jigaboo and excavator lean to leave in chop - up Tuber , though , so garden ramification or hands are recommended .
If your potato plants still have strong stems , you’re able to draw them up to start the harvesting cognitive process .
You ’ll often get a few lowly specimens clinging to the root . To get the rest period of the spuds , or if your stems have whole died back , gently comprehend several inches away from the al-Qaeda of each plant and lift the soil up . snap up any potatoes that come with it .
utilise gloved paw to sift through the upturned dirt to make indisputable you get every last one . Do n’t forget to dig down deeply so you wo n’t leave any specimens underground , where they could rot or sprout next season ( which might not change course with your planting orcrop rotationplans ) .
Now that you bed the “ how , ” lease ’s take a feeling at timing .
When to Harvest
For “ unexampled ” potatoes – a wonderful midsummer treat – you may harvest when about a third of the potato greenery has started to yellow or pop off back .
These potatoes will be on the minuscule side , and they ’ll have a very delicate peel that ’s easy for shovels , forks , or even gloved hands to damage . They ’ll also be delicious .
This can be a honorable time to assure on and harvest just a few potatoes to see how they ’re hail along in term of size and skin texture – if you ’re planning to store tater , or if you need bigger white potato , they ’ll need several more weeks to build up . Prep and enjoy your test potatoes now for a delicious preview of future harvest home .
Be sure to get even the footling marble - sized delicacy . A farmer I have it off sold these recently in half - pint containers as “ monkey nut Solanum tuberosum . ” If you ’re guy , broiling , or fry your stump spud , these little guys with their gamy hide - to - flesh ratio crisp up really nicely .
Now that you know your potatoes are quick , you may harvest your white potato all at once , or as you need them during the hardening - off process , which I ’ll discourse in the next section .
I incline to harvest the potatoes from each of my planting surface area ( in my case , raised bedsand containers ) all at once , but I do this in stages .
I ’ll glean one container or bed ’s worth so that the growing infinite becomes available for other crops preferably . But I still have a few more beds or container ’s worth of potatoes to harvest in following weeks . That way , that I ’ve got a fairly well provision that will take me from June 21 to Labor Day .
Besides keeping my ascendant wine cellar or fridge stocked , this allows me to exempt up containers or sections of plots forsowing fall cropslikecarrots , beets , andlettuce .
Speaking of fall , you might need to keep a large crop of tater invigorated for several calendar month past harvesting metre . Fortunately , there ’s a wide-eyed process that can help you to do just that .
Hardening Off
If you ’d like your potato peel to be more firm , or if you ’re plan to put in them long - term , leave them in the ground for up to a month after the tops have totally died back .
Be sure to keep them dry – no watering!Applied irrigationor even heavy rains can make your potatoes to molder or sprout at this point , so plan your harvest accordingly .
If there ’s lots of loaded weather in the forecast or a hoar is coming up , it ’s a good idea to glean your remain spuds before this decimal point – unfortunately you wo n’t be able to harden off underground with these condition . But you may reap your murphy and bring them indoors to continue the hardening off mental process if you ’re get by with rain or frost .
Proper Storage
Now that your potatoes have been unearthed , brush off any excess dirt and store them indoors in a cool , coloured , dry place .
you’re able to also lay in them in the electric refrigerator for up to 2 months , wrapped well in credit card or stored in a zip - top old bag to keep them firm and fresh .
I ’ve had success doing this with both unwashed and washed potatoes . If you choose to wash and refrigerate yours , be sure they ’ve been dry out well before store in plastic to prevent rot .
If you ’ve hardened off your haul and plan tostore your potatoesover the winter , do not wash them ! Brush off excess soil , let the dirty stump spud juiceless indoors ( out of the sun to deflect damaging or germinate the specimens ) , and then keep them teetotal to avoid bunk .
It ’s hunky-dory if some ironical dirt cling to the skins of the potatoes . audit your haul carefully and cull any with cuts , slash , or broken skin – they wo n’t keep well , but you may use them quickly with no ill effects .
It ’s also a full rule of thumb to pull small-scale white potato from your storage stock before larger ones – small taters do n’t have quite the keeping exponent of heavy specimen .
The idealistic temperature for long - term Irish potato storage is around 50 ° F . You ’ll want to stash them in a dark stead – no light whatsoever ! – in a well - ventilated container . A caning basket , report or mesh dish , plastic storage bin with cutouts , or a cardboard boxwood will do the thaumaturgy .
If you have a cool , wry , sinister cellar or other reposition space , that ’s keen for this . And if you ’re lucky enough to have an actual root cellar , that ’s perfect !
Keep in thinker that you ’ll require to fix memory access to athirst critters as much as possible .
Otherwise , a buttery or closet that will ride out dark and cool for the retentive term and that is n’t accessible for pests to overrun will do . Your potato should keep well this agency for several months .
More Potato Tips
Now , for a few important pro tip :
1. Don’t Eat the Green Ones…
As you enjoy your homegrown white potato vine , you may comment that the skin of your spud has direct on a gullible tincture . You ’ll sometimes see this at the food market store as well – do n’t buy these !
This means your potatoes have been exposed to visible radiation , which increases levels of alkaloid and creates a toxin called solanine that ’s vicious to humankind . This can also create a vitriolic flavor in your potatoes .
To invalidate greening , be certain to keep them in the dark , with no light exposure during storage whatsoever .
While I emphatically recommend obviate any amply green potatoes entirely , specimens with just a intimation of unripened on their skin can still be eaten safely , as long as you cut away that portion .
2. …Or the Seeds
As your potatoes grow to maturity , but before the green tops start to snuff it back , you may notice what appear like tiny light-green cherry tree Lycopersicon esculentum growing among the leaves . These are the seeds of the white potato .
Please resist the itch to pop them in your mouth while weed like you would a Sungold , because they ’re toxic !
They also wo n’t give you the same potato , even if you were to spare and plant them next yr . Since potato do n’t grow true from germ , we propagate them vegetatively , by save seed tater from one yr to the next .
Since disease can be passed down from season to time of year this way , it ’s recommended that you always source trust seed potatoes each year .
3. A Note on Rotation
I ’ve come to on it already , but I ’d like to offer one more note about rotary motion , with an urban mature tip :
Growing potatoes andtomatoeson a three - year rotation is recommend – meaning that if you desire to spring up these crops every year , you ’ll need to hold three separate bed or containers .
This minimizes the chance that you ’ll exhaust the grunge and build up pests or plant disease in one bed like you might if you imbed these crops in the same place over and over .
In my own garden , I also uprise in straight compost , since I can get it for detached . Yields seem pretty effective so far , although the crops would benefit from something a bit lighter , I ’m sure . YMMV .
Since I plant my potatoes in a serial of raised bed and containers in various community garden ( as well as my own front yard ) , I verify to build up my raised bed soil levels – which inevitably drop throughout each season – by emptying my spent potato container grease into a spent murphy or Lycopersicon esculentum bed .
This way , I ’m retain my revolution properly , and the bed I use that did n’t grow white potato or tomatoes this season will be ready for them the next season .
Dig In!
Now that you’rearmed with the prick you needto harvesting and stack away your stump spud , it ’s time to find your pitchfork and get digging !
While a simple flip with olive petroleum , salt , and herbs ( likethis one ) ordinarily does it for me , I also bonk unfreeze an Alpine - style cheese over boiled or roasted taters , Raclette - vogue .
And formore potato growing tips , be sure to look into out some of our other guide :
Photos by Alex Jones © Ask the Experts , LLC . ALL right RESERVED.See our TOSfor more details . Originally release August 26th , 2016 . Last updated July 25th , 2023 . Uncredited photos : Shutterstock .
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