Growing potatoes

[GTIYB]

Hey folks,
I just got some potato tubers from a seed catalog and had some questions:

1. The instructions that came with the tubers said I can either wait until the plants die off to harvest the crop or, if the season is coming to an end and the plant hasn't died back, I can cut the plant back to the ground, wait a few days for the skins to set, then harvest. My question is, does that mean it's okay to let the potato plants flower? Will this effect the flavor of the spuds?

2. It doesn't really matter because I've already planted them but, for future reference, do I water them in when I plant the tubers? The instructions didn't clarify but I assumed that the added moisture would encourage the eyes to put out shoots. Hopefully I didn't just rot all of them... I didn't soak the soil - moistened it similar to how you'd moisten soil for starting seeds.

3. The potatoes are described as "seed potatoes" - does that mean that the plants they grow off of were begun as seeds and not divided tubers? I'm just curious about that one.

Anyway, any general knowledge from experienced potato growers would be greatly appreciated. The variety that I'm growing is a "blue" (I thought it was purple... but the catalog calls them "blue"... not sure if there's a difference....) mid-early season varietal. I live in a coastal, central coast California town. I'm growing two separate lots in my garden of 20 potato plants. I'm also growing 13 potato plants in pots to give away to friends who garden.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Chuck]

Hey folks,
I just got some potato tubers from a seed catalog and had some questions:

1. The instructions that came with the tubers said I can either wait until the plants die off to harvest the crop or, if the season is coming to an end and the plant hasn't died back, I can cut the plant back to the ground, wait a few days for the skins to set, then harvest. My question is, does that mean it's okay to let the potato plants flower? Will this effect the flavor of the spuds?

2. It doesn't really matter because I've already planted them but, for future reference, do I water them in when I plant the tubers? The instructions didn't clarify but I assumed that the added moisture would encourage the eyes to put out shoots. Hopefully I didn't just rot all of them... I didn't soak the soil - moistened it similar to how you'd moisten soil for starting seeds.

3. The potatoes are described as "seed potatoes" - does that mean that the plants they grow off of were begun as seeds and not divided tubers? I'm just curious about that one.

Anyway, any general knowledge from experienced potato growers would be greatly appreciated. The variety that I'm growing is a "blue" (I thought it was purple... but the catalog calls them "blue"... not sure if there's a difference....) mid-early season varietal. I live in a coastal, central coast California town. I'm growing two separate lots in my garden of 20 potato plants. I'm also growing 13 potato plants in pots to give away to friends who garden.

Thanks,
Matt

They will flower anyway. I always cut my seed potatoes into halves or quarters and I coat the cut pieces with either hardwood ashes or sulphur to keep them from rotting. I dampen the soil and fertilize around the cut potatoe then cover up the potatoe with about 4 inches of soil. When the shoots are about 6" tallI add about another 4" of soil and a little fertlizer and keep doing this until it gets hot and the plant dies. You can dig down and remove potatoes as they grow but I usually just wait until the plant has died, let it sit for a couple of weeks and then dig the whole thing up at once. It is a lot like Forrest Gump and his box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.

 

[firelily99]

They will flower because that is what they do. Everything that Chuck wrote about is good advice so follow his instructions.