Fresh Home Grown Potatoes!!
We grew our garden again this summer by double. It's now about 40ft x 14ft filled with beans, corn, radish, onions, cucumbers, turnips, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, pumpkins, lettuce and for the first time this year, potatoes.
Since this was the first year, I wasn't sure when exactly I should dig them up. Reading online and talking to others it was suggested to dig them up in early September, or before the first frost starts and the foliage turns black and starts to die off.
The foliage on my Yukon Gold potatoes is dying off now and unfortunately we had our first frost warning last night so I decided to dig up the first of 3 rows planted. I was pleasantly surprised with about 10lbs of potatoes in a 15ft row. I'm not sure if that's good or not, but I did have some lessons learned. I'll dig up the rest in the next week or so as I keep an eye out on them.
Next season I will prepare the plot better and plant the seed potatoes in about an 8 inch trench and cover with 4 inches and work up the mound. This should ensure a plenty bounty as this first planting seemed to have potatoes popping out of the ground, which I would attibute to not planting deep enough.
Another option I'm going to try next season is a potato stack... but more on that later ;o) For now I'm pretty happy with the experience and will definately grow a couple varieties of potatoes next year. If anyone has any tips or tricks I'd certainly love to hear them!
Tagged with: gardening • gardening tips • harvesting garden • potatoes • vegetable garden
Filed under: Garden Living
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Just one thing – I’m no expert either (in fact, I’m trying to work out how bad it is to wait until the first frost before harvesting potatoes), but I’ve heard that you shouldn’t plant potatoes in the same place in successive years, but move them around your garden. My neighbour planted potatoes in the same place for 3 consecutive years, and her harvest this year was less than half what she put into the ground. It’s hard to tell from your article, but I get the impression you might be planning on planting in the same place.
Cheers!
Peter
Yes I currently rotate in 3 different beds but I’m toying with putting in all raised beds for next year. This will make it easier to extend my growing season by using hooped pvc and cover. Tks for the comment!
This is a great post.. Very informative… I can see that you put a lot of hard work on your every post that’s why I think I’d come here more often. Keep it up! By the way, you can also drop by my blogs. They’re about Vegetable Gardening and Composting. I’m sure you’d find my blogs helpful too.
Thanks for the comment Mica.. I will check out your blogs now sounds good ;o)