How Do You Know When Sweet Potatoes Are Ready to Harvest

Potatoes are ane of the easiest vegetables to grow producing heavy yields of tasty tubers when planted in garden beds and containers. Plus, there's so many awesome murphy varieties to grow – from fingerlings to russets – in a rainbow of colors.Only as the crop is produced below ground, it's hard to tell when the tubers are prepare to dig. And so, how Practise you know when to harvest potatoes?

Don't wash potatoes after harvesting unless you're about to swallow them. Instead, cure them for one to two weeks and then shop in a cool, dark place.

When to harvest potatoes?

Harvesting potatoes is so much fun, even the kids will want to help. It's like digging for buried treasure – treasure you can eat! In that location are two main types of potatoes: new potatoes and storage potatoes, and both harvesting fourth dimension and techniques differ between the two types.Because I want both new potatoes for summertime cooking and storage potatoes for fall and wintertime, I plant at least i bed of each. Figuring out when to harvest potatoes tin can be a challenge for new gardeners, but one time you know the basics, timing the harvest is a snap!

New Potatoes –All potatoes tin be new potatoes if harvested when the tubers are still pocket-sized and thin-skinned, about 50 to 55 days from planting the seed potatoes for early on maturing varieties. The beginning sign that new potatoes have formed is the appearance of the flowers. At that indicate, feel free to start harvesting from the irish potato plants. For a long harvest of new potatoes, stagger your seed potato plantings or constitute early and late maturing varieties. That way you tin enjoy tender new potatoes from late June through Baronial.

Storage Potatoes –Storage potatoes, also called main-crop potatoes, are set up at the cease of the growing season when the leafage has turned yellow and begun to dry, ofttimes afterward a frost. At this betoken they accept reached maturity. In my zone 5B garden I harvest my storage potatoes in belatedly September through October. Some gardeners cut dorsum the leaves while others let them to die back naturally. Either way, the tubers need to be left in the footing for almost ii more weeks. This allows the skins to thicken up and results in amend storage quality.

Don't be shy about trying some of the crawly varieties of potatoes available through catalogs and in garden centres. Caribe is a gorgeous majestic skinned diversity with brilliant white flesh. it's non a long storage blazon, but makes a wonderful new potato.

How to harvest potatoes

Option a dry day to harvest potatoes as moisture can spread disease and rot. What'south the best way to harvest? Advisedly! Try to avert piercing or slicing the potatoes when excavation the tubers. If your spade does skid, swallow damaged potatoes right abroad. I notice information technology handy to go on a basin nearby for damaged tubers which then head direct to the kitchen. Tater scab is a common white potato disease and whatever affected potatoes are also taken to the kitchen as they may not store well.

New Potatoes –When the plants brainstorm to blossom, usually quondam in July, you tin can beginning harvesting new potatoes by reaching into the side of the hill and taking a few tubers from each establish. I use a gloved hand, non a tool, for this task as I don't want to damage the plants and I want to proceed my hands (relatively) clean. One time you've harvested a few new potatoes, button the soil back in identify and mound it around the plants.

Storage Potatoes –To harvest storage potatoes, insert a garden fork almost a foot away from the plant and gently elevator the root mass. Shovels may also be used. There may nonetheless be a few potatoes in the ground, so use a gloved mitt to feel around for whatever missed tubers. One time harvested, gently brush off caked on soil and allow them to dry out off for an hr or so outdoors. Do not wash the tubers.

Harvesting potatoes from containers and straw beds

If harvesting new potatoes from a container or irish potato grow handbag, accomplish into the soil to experience around for the tubers, taking simply a few from each plant at any one time. After harvesting new potatoes from in-ground or container plants, feed them with a fish emulsion fertilizer to encourage salubrious growth and more tubers. Container grown storage potatoes can be easily harvested by dumping the container onto a tarp or in a wheelbarrow. Sift through the soil with your hands to grab all of the tubers. Learn how to grow potatoes in containers in this brusk video.

If harvesting potatoes from a bed mulched with straw, use a garden fork to carefully elevator off the layer of straw. Most of the tubers will have formed in the straw mulch and be dirt-costless. Gather them up for curing.

Prepare the soil for next year

Once the potatoes have been harvested, I sow a cover crop or add a source of organic matter, similar manure or compost, to the top of the bed. The autumn and winter weather will piece of work it down into the summit few inches of soil. If you're not sure of your soil pH, this is also an ideal time for a soil exam. Information technology's also important to consider ingather rotation and keep track of where yous grew murphy family unit crops, similar tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Planting these crops on a three yr rotation cycle tin can reduce pests and soil-borne diseases.

Kids love to aid dig potatoes in the garden – and they may even eat their veggies!

How to store potatoes

Before they tin can be stored, potatoes need to become through a curing procedure. This helps the peel thicken up and extends the storage life of the tubers. To cure potatoes, lay them on newspaper, trays, or cardboard in a cool, nighttime spot (fifty to 60 F, 10 to xv C) with high humidity for one to two weeks. Pick a location that offers expert air circulation.

Once cured, movement the potatoes (removing any that take signs of damage) to bushel baskets, cardboard boxes (with ventilation holes poked in the sides), low baskets, or brown newspaper bags. You can also detect multiple drawer harvest storage at many garden supply stores. Don't pile them also deeply, however every bit that can encourage rot to spread. Comprehend containers with cardboard or sheets of newspaper to block low-cal. Calorie-free turns the tubers green and green potatoes incorporate solanine, a toxic alkaloid.

The best storage area for potatoes

The storage area should be cooler than the curing site and exist dark and well-ventilated. I use a corner of my basement, but a root cellar is best if you accept i. You tin can besides store potatoes in a garage, but it should stay above freezing. Aim for the platonic temperature of 40 to 45 F (4.5 to seven C) with loftier humidity. Under ideal conditions, storage potatoes can retain quality for half dozen to viii months in long-term storage. Check tubers regularly and remove whatsoever that show signs of rot or shrivelling.

The thin skin that makes new potatoes so appealing limits their storage life to weeks not months. Therefore, enjoy new potatoes soon after harvesting them.

For a tutorial on when to harvest potatoes and how to practise information technology right, bank check out this video by Savvy's Jessica Walliser.

Do you have any tips to add together on when to harvest potatoes? Go out them in the comments below.

For more on growing potatoes in a garden, check out these awesome articles:

• Growing potatoes in small spaces with 7 piece of cake steps
• How to plant seed potatoes in gardens, containers, and straw
• Build a murphy bin with compost and autumn leaves

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Source: https://savvygardening.com/when-to-harvest-potatoes/

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