Ask the Experts: Growing and Harvesting Potatoes : A basic for well-balanced, healthful meals, potatoes can be mashed, roasted, grilled, or fried. Additionally, potatoes are nutrient-dense and surprising easy to grow. Just keep an eye on the butter and sour cream!
Ask the Experts: Growing and Harvesting Potatoes
Potato Planting Advice
For optimal results, buy seed potatoes that are free of disease. As soon as the soil is dry but workable, which should be six to eight weeks before the last frost date, plant small whole potatoes or small pieces with at least one “eye” about one foot apart in a trench that is one to four inches deep. Set rows apart by roughly two feet. Cover newly emerging branches with a dirt ridge.
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When to Harvest Potatoes
Amanda Jones from St. Louis, Missouri, inquires, “When should I harvest homegrown potatoes?”
Expert in horticulture Melinda Myers: When cultivating potatoes (Solanum tuberosum), harvest the tubers when they reach their maximum size and the tops die. To prevent damage, dig gently. After carefully removing any extra dirt, store any extra potatoes in a cool, dark place with plenty of ventilation. Varieties that mature later store better.
If eyes appear, take them out and store them somewhere colder, or utilise the potatoes right away.
Additionally, potatoes can be harvested earlier in the growing season. They are collected when they are between one and two inches in size and before the tops wither, and are known as “new potatoes.” Soon after harvest, use these smaller potatoes for roasting with butter or soups.
Potato Varieties to Grow
Consider cultivating Clancy potatoes. Though they must be planted indoors, this is the first potato winner of the 2019 All-America Selections, which can be grown from seed. The seeds stop the spread of garden disease and are sterile, easier to keep, and have a longer shelf life than tubers.
Other excellent choices are Norland (red skin, early harvest) and Pontiac (summer harvest, red skin). Additionally, search for delectable heritage like German butterballs and French fingerlings.
Are Sweet Potato Vine Tubers Edible?
When I pulled out the sweet potato plants, I discovered these tubers in my pots. Are they palatable? From Pleasant Lake, Michigan, Susan Vandercook.
Melinda: The edible sweet potato is cultivated into beautiful vines. Although they are edible, the tuberous roots of these decorative sweet potato vines are not particularly appetising. According to the majority of gardeners, the flavour is inferior to those grown in vegetable gardens.
In the spring, some gardeners plant the tuberous roots in a container or in the garden after storing them over the winter. With this approach, you can, however, get inconsistent outcomes. Compared to starting with fresh plants from the garden centre in the spring or cuttings, the outcomes are typically less consistent, appealing, and robust.
