Potato harvest 2023

[JRinPA]

My early patch is ready, I guess. I dug up the first plant the other day, got 6 plus the seed potato back. It has some soft spots but still mostly firm. They caught some frost on May 17 and were already flowering, so I'm not sure what the yield will be.

I guess those rows are ready to go? I don't need them out, yet. Either peas or cole crops going in next, no fall "fruits" I can think of.

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[bower]

That's a nice color skin on those JR. What variety?

[JRinPA]

Lehigh, I think the last time I bought seed potatoes was 2020 or 21. It is the potato developed for 'round these parts, we love them, good for everything. I've only tried a few other types though.

So do those rows look ready? It rained another inch this morning. There is some green left on a few potato plants but not much. The tough thing for me is knowing when to harvest.

[Uncle_Feist]

I don't dig until September or October. They will keep better in the ground.

[JRinPA]

When the row looks like that, are the potatoes growing anymore? I think the answer is no, but?

So keep on grabblin? and wait until Sept/Oct?

The problem is I don't want to keep the row inactive too long. Peas could go in now. The short grow peas like Cascadia, I used to do Aug 8th, but the longer snow peas are good timing now.

Peas right over the potatoes until late October? Would that work? Harvest the last peas end of Oct and then cut them off and dig up the remaining spuds that weren't vole food. Are the pea roots going to bother the finished potatoes?

But then I'd lose the potatoes for now, none to eat now then. Maybe one row only?

Store inside basement in peat moss buckets or bags to simulate ground, instead of air? Still not down to a science for me, this potato growing.

[Seven Bends]

Thanks to some combination of our clay soil, summer heat, and frequent summer thunderstorms/rain, our potatoes rot if we leave them in the ground too long. They also seem to get more scale or other weirdness, and the wireworms have more chance to find the potatoes and do damage.

We're planning to dig half of ours tomorrow and the other half next week. If we start digging tomorrow and find they're already starting to rot or develop scale, we'll dig them all tomorrow. On the other hand, if we dig up a few plants and find there aren't many large potatoes and there are a lot of healthy baby ones, we'll try to leave as many plants as we can for a little longer, if they still have life in the vines. Most of our plants right now look about like yours in your first picture. Our Kennebecs are a little more alive still, so we'll probably leave them until late next week.

[JRinPA]

Can't wait to see them @Seven Bends.

So life in the vines, not necessarily the tops?

I'm going to try inch up a little more tomorrow, see if they look lively yet. I just hope there is a bunch, production wise, I had two double rows, about a ft apart, so maybe 80 plants total in there. Most had "light seeker" growth that I was careful not to break off.

My first bunch last year was dug mid August from an early May planting. These were in earlier. I have a picture from 4/10, looks like that might have been planting day. That seems years ago now.

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[Whwoz]

@JRinPA, those potatoes in the first post are basically finished. You can dig them anytime. Probably a couple of weeks before vines dry out completely depending upon weather. Easier to dig if vines are still obvious.

[bower]

Around here it's catch as catch can... if I see plants are down, I'm ready to dig em.

For storage you want bags that don't allow any light in. Paper is best because any moisture that holds up on plastic might start a spud rotting. We like to hose off the spuds on the grass and let them dry in the shade before packing. Your basement should be fine for storage if it's a bit cool.

[JRinPA]

They stored pretty well last year in black Grow Bags hanging from bar clamps clamped to the basement rafters. I wrapped each potato in newspaper individually. Worked well I thought. The year before, boxes on shelves, bad bad bad idea, lots of mouse problems. But no, basement is not cool at this time, around 80F in the summer.

[bower]

Nice trick with the hanging bags. IDK about the 80F, or how long they would stay good. My own harvested potatoes always stay firm much longer than any I bought from the supermarket, no matter how I treat them. Karstopography said his spuds kept well, maybe at temperatures similar to your basement or close.

[JRinPA]

So I dug up 13 ft total so far. 39lb of good ones today, 4lb of which I spiked a little or a lot. 1-1/2lb from the first plant a few days ago. And about one pound of small fry.

Should have stuck with a garden fork, but I saw a short hay fork in the shed and thought the skinny long tines might be better. I ended up spiking too many with that before switching to garden fork. I should really weld up a good two handled potato fork.

These are much bigger potatoes than last year's first run. Last year shared a double row with pole beans that got marauded by mexican bean beetles and the potatoes seemed to die back early in the heat. These were of course carp powered and the biggest potatoes often had lots of friable bone right under them.

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I finished up with raking the row back in place, and putting in the last 44 seeds of my good corn about 6" spacing double row, and then beet seed down the middle, covered, then pressed with board for firmness, then watered in. I expect that corn will pop up right quick this week as long as I water it.

[bower]

Nice job for a hot day @JRinPA ! And great to get corn and beets out of the same season.
I always manage to stick or slice a few, no matter what I dig with.

[JRinPA]

Went to the grocery store today. $6/5lb white potatoes. $7/5lb yellow potatoes. Unreal world we are living in now.

[bower]

That's really high JR. I definitely paid less than that for a 10 lb bag last time I bought some.
When the fall harvest comes in, they are often on for $3.99 for 10 lb.
Price of potatoes went really high here one year, but that was a few ago. Hopefully....

[JRinPA]

Truck tags came up, Class 2 is just a regular 1500 pickup. $110 for the year now. Up from $86 the last few years. Up from about $60 something when I got the truck in 2015. Just the yearly tax for the state to say it is okay for it to be on the road.

[JRinPA]

30 lbs more from the remainder of that row. I refilled it with 6 cabbage starts.

[JRinPA]

Second row dug on 8/2. It was nice evening weather and was supposed to rain today, so I dug them, and then of course it didn't rain here today. But they are out. There were planted just a day or two after my first row, same way basically. I haven't had a chance to weigh them, they are on the carport in the shade.

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[JRinPA]

All told it was 56 pounds in those two crates.

I'm still waiting for the legendary "hundreds of pounds" or whatever that the one lady had reported.

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[JRinPA]

My next potato row looks ready, this was between a double row of corn in the first block. As I recall it ended up being three rows on two layers. One or two rows was buried, then one or two rows just under grade. And then really hilled up high. I can't seem to remember if it was one then two or two then one. I just know the corn did fine so at some point I'll dig the potatoes. When I get help again. Probably put spinach in there afterward, it just had Root and Fruit together so Leaf is next.

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