I'm wondering how everyone is doing on potatoes in the heat this year?

My first row of potatoes came out on Sunday Aug 14th.

My potatoes died back...well sort of early this year, I thought. It was hot, it was dry, and my seed potatoes were...a bit further gone than the norm. I used my leftover Lehigh. Most were just small 1" or so that I saved for seed. I had them hanging from the basement rafters in black grow bags. Well, eventually this spring the nearby grow lights must have done a number on them, because the sprouts shot up 12-18" and up over the bags' rims.

So I ended up planting them out, carefully, with their very long sprouts. This was late May, a few days after I set bean poles and planted beans. A good week or more after the rain stopped. They got half of a double row shared with pole beans - about 21'. I actually rototilled (first time for potatoes), then backed the dirt off into the walkway, laid them down as deep as I easily could, and set them in a VVVVVVVVV formation. That is, a sort of diamond with potato 1 laying the sprout at a 30 degree angle across the row. And potato 2 right next to the end of that sprout 1, but back across the row at that same 30 degrees. So basically from above it looked like equilateral triangles, like a strong truss bridge. Then I pushed all the dirt back on and that put about 5" of hill over the potatoes. I pulled up the green tip of each sprout so it was near the surface. I was hoping that by planting in this formation they would set potatoes all the way across each row. It seemed to work because the area was filled with sprouts in no time, set all along the stems.

I wrote "I" but to be fair, my brother was there "helping" on planting day. He pulled MY potatoes from MY bags and handed them to ME mostly one at a time from the other side of the bean poles without breaking too many stalks. Meaning, sometimes breaking the tip or giving me 2 or 3 at a time, which I then had to put down. And sometimes they were even delivered faster than I could trench them in and cover them up. Meaning the other times, I had to wait for the potato. I'd estimate it saved 5 minutes and 17 seconds, all told. But that may be generous. For that help, I got to feed him.

These very leggy starts were up and flowering in no time. During the season, they got some drip tape, but not as much as they wanted. They started dying back a bit earlier than I expected them too. About 10 days back I mulched over them a bit with cut red beet tops, though I only saw one potato showing. Still, I figured it wouldn't hurt to cover them a bit more.

I wasn't really planning to harvest yet. They were mostly died back but maybe 20% still had a few days of green leaves and stem leftover. Normally I would think - that few days more plus two weeks. But that puts it right at Sept 1st and I didn't want to wait until then. Plus my brother was over on Sunday, so, free labor (actual labor, this time). Plus, voles. And I want to get something else in there before I run out of solar power. It all added up to, "let's go dig that row of potatoes."
All told it was 78.5 lb - ~1lb of dirt clinging -3lb of use first/questionable -1.5 lb of <=1" or so that I'll save for seed again. So 73lb that should store well from 21ft.
There were a lot of 1/2"-3/4" ones, just started. How much size did I miss by digging early? A month or more back, voles chewed the dripline about 9ft into the row. I caught it pretty quick, I think. But I'd offer that where it was chewed had the biggest potatoes. I guess I should have watered more aggressively, but water isn't free. There were only a few bad potatoes that weren't seed, and even some of the seed potatoes looked edible, yet.

If I could make a change it would have been getting them in earlier, and maybe watering more. I actually liked the long sprouts from small seed potatoes, I think they worked well.

I still have another 8 foot in the next double row over, and I will leave them in for another month, I think. That 8 foot is just off camera right in the first pic, behind the off camera right pole beans. Those were more normal, as far as seed potatoes. Call it the good bag. But as said I will hold off on their harvest.

That's a great haul! Maybe you've stumbled onto a new method for planting them. Have you ever had that nice a harvest from that many row feet?

Mine were pretty much a bust this year, the plants having been caught by a very late freeze. My bad for not protecting them. Lesson learned the hard way. Always cover even if there's a teeny possibility of even a light frost. Little frosts can turn into freezes when weather forecasters get it wrong.

Wow that is a great result from your experiment! Thanks for detailing the method with the long sprouts, I will for sure try that next time I'm faced with the long sprouters at planting time.

we have had a few meals so far. some red potatoes are in the pot for dinner tonight. some vines are starting to yellow,
but most are still pretty green. i am hoping for a decent harvest. i planted some fingerlings from last year that aren't ready
yet, and as an experiment, i planted some potatoes i didn't have room to plant earlier in part of the garlic patch after digging
the garlic. i am hoping for at least some small new potatoes.
nuthin like fresh dug garden potatoes.


keith

That harvest looks beautiful and was quite successful. Your experiment most definitely worked quite well. I just love freshly harvested potatoes. Now I can't wait to see what your next row looks like

Thanks all. It's probably the best production by weight I've had so far. Under black mulch with hole spacing that seemed too wide, I had bigger potatoes but a lot of dead spots with nothing. And some vole damage. The edge of the sweet potato box worked well last year. And under corn I got a nice 30 lb or so of potatoes from 13'by3-1/2'. But this half a double row was only a little over a foot wide, so that was about 3lb per sqft so was pretty good I thought. Just that a lot of them were small potatoes.

Each way seems to work well with Lehigh as long as they are just planted/hilled once and left be. No further hilling. The only bad harvest I had was making that box in 2020 that I kept hilling and walling. That was a vole town and nothing was set above the initial planting, anyway. Just 12" of added dirt for no benefit.

These potatoes did okay but it is hard to call it a great success for the row since the pole beans did so poorly. I learned a bit there though, too. Get them in earlier, get them in while it is wet, get THEM in and not some mistaken bush bean seed, don't let them flop into the grass or those pole beans tips might get mowed off, and plant them in a line with drip tape overhead rather than in circles around the poles. The beans really got a raw deal on the drip tape as it was along/behind the poles and the seed was outside toward the grass in half circles.

Hey rxkeith my brother has some volunteer red potatoes at home, he is picking them a bit at time like that. I've just never liked reds much.

That is great looking harvest!

Last weekend I noticed that one of my potato varieties in end of the bed had yellow leaves and spots, which looks like early blight, so I pulled the stems from those. I lifted the black plastic sheet covering the bed and found some large spuds under it. Even I would have normally let then grow few more weeks, these look like mature size and skins look like those could be ready for digging.
Other varieties had green healthy stems, but this week has been really warm and humid, that I am afraid, that late blight will now hit.

My PotatoPot potatoes in the city grew well this year. I grow those to get fresh new potatoes, which need no peeling. When I emptied the first ones in July, I planted some potatoes with long sprouts in them. Those have now good size stems, but I have not checked if there is any potatoes forming.
Now I remembered that I had planted La Ratte potatoes also in one of the small pallet collar beds, here in my city garden. It is in the far corner behind other plants, so I have not really been checking how those are growing. If it is not raining tonight, I may have to go dig in there.

Sari

Tops of my small pallet collar potato planting had died and I dug the tubers from there. I got quite many small potatoes from eight planted potatoes. Maybe those would had been bigger with proper care. I have the same variety planted in the field, so those are hopefully bigger. La Ratte are usually small, but when I grew it few years ago in the field some were same size and shape as bananas.

Sari

Those have a nice shape to them svalli. Nice easy early harvest too.

Seeing all these potatoes makes my mouth water.

On Saturday I went to check the potatoes planted on the field. La Ratte had signs of late blight on the stems, so I dug them up. I had planted those just by pushing the seed potatoes on surface of soil and covering with old hay. These potatoes were a bit bigger than the ones grown in the small pallet collar.

Annabelle's stems had died in a week and I should have dug them up too, but we had so many things to do and it was a bit too warm day to work hard. I have to wait for cooler weather to dig them up.

Sari

I dug my potatoes yesterday. I planted 5 lbs of Kenebec seed potatoes and harvested 16.5 lbs of nice baking sized ones as well as 11 lbs of medium sized ones. I was very pleased since with the drought, I didn't expect much. This picture was taken inside of the garage with a flash so it made them look yellow but they are actually white potatoes.

Kennebec 2022 by Brownrexx, on Flickr

These are some impressive harvests.

Saturday I got all Annabelle potatoes up. I got three of the vegetable bins filled half plus what I brought home earlier in a grocery bag.
Blight had hit them and I found some tubers, which already had blight, so I need to be checking the ones in the cellar during storage.

Six more blight resistant varieties of potatoes are still in ground.

Sari

Oh that heart shaped potato is sweet!

Week ago Saturday, I dug up all the ones, which had dead stems due to blight or just being mature. Water voles had been making tunnels in the potato bed, but there were only few eaten potatoes and nothing like year ago, when a lot of tubers were half eaten. We got two crates of Pocahontas and four Mozart, the others I had planted smaller amounts for just keeping the varieties going.

Last week there was couple of freezing nights, so also the blight resistant Muse and Sarpo Mira stems were killed. Since this week will be rainy I had to dig them all up last weekend. Even many of the potatoes were on the surface after removing the black plastic sheet from the bed, there was still digging needed to get all the tubers. Some varieties are close to the planting hole and others grow long stolons and the tubers can be deeper and spread wider.



Sari

Wow, freezing nights already. It is supposed to be in the 90s here next week...

Those potatoes look great, and I'm glad those oversized water voles took a pass this year. Do you water those beds at all or are they fine on their own?

JRinPA wrote: ↑Tue Sep 13, 2022 8:07 am Wow, freezing nights already. It is supposed to be in the 90s here next week...

Those potatoes look great, and I'm glad those oversized water voles took a pass this year. Do you water those beds at all or are they fine on their own?

This is the typical time for us to get the first frost, if there is no cloud cover during night. There is no frost in forecast for next couple of weeks, since it is rainy, so the temperature will be hovering around 50°F. I have still carrots growing and left the rat traps covered with buckets on the field where the water vole tunnels were. Last year all carrots were eaten after I had dug up potatoes.

I do not water the potato beds at all. That plastic sheet seems to be able to retain enough moisture for the potatoes. Year ago summer was really dry and potatoes grew huge, even I did not water them. My father in law keeps saying that potatoes do not need water until you boil them.

i am having a very good potato harvest so far. most of three long rows in my wifes garden have been dug.
i got a bunch of really large taters. big norlunds, some slabs of russets, and some kennebec boulders. yukon
golds sized up well too. still have some purples out there with green foliage, so have to wait a bit on them.
potatoes were in a new spot this year, so wasn't sure what to expect. my wife decided a couple years ago, that she
wanted her own garden with wide rows that she could walk more easily in. i had tried growing a few taters last year
in the new spot, and they sized up really well, but some might have hints of scab, so this year, i raked up pine needles
that we have in abundance, and filled the trenchs with them after planting, and raking dirt into the trench. we have light
top soil, so the potatoes were free to grow as big as they could. no evidence of scab.
i haven't been weighing them. the goal was to have enough potatoes, so we would not have to buy any. i think we are there.
have you checked the price of organic potatoes in the store? ULP!



keith

Dug my spuds today, down in my Dad's old potato bed, which has been neglected for a decade.
These got no fertilizer except for being planted on chopped weeds and hilled once with dirt and more weeds. They got no watering.
The Norlands were planted a week earlier, and the stalks had pretty well vanished under the invading Mile-a-minute. It was some work to dig. The Pontiac Reds were just ready to be pulled. Pontiac yield was a bit more, and larger potatoes.
All things considered, I am happy with these potatoes just because I proved the old method worked even without caplin, in the good ground. It was a dry year too, so the quality is pretty good, not much scab.