A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening tater's ready?

I did potatoes this year, first time. I remember reading they are ready when the top dies out. It did get a little dry a couple of times. it looks just horrible. do you think they are ready?

Um.....


Aren't you supposed to put them in the ground, then wait until next fall to dig them up?

pete, depending on where you live, you can do that, but there are early varieties of potatoes. and container potatoes are good. i've done them, once. the tire or wire cage method is best though.

I've never done them in a container but we wait until the tops look more pitiful than that. Is the soil where you can stick your hand in it and check. We do that all the time and it doesn't seem to hurt anything.

thanks for all the advice. first year for me for taters. I read in one of my gardening books about doing potatos in a container. it seemed so much simpler for me. just plant, then when the top dies, dump the pot out and wha-la...there's your taters. no digging with your hand under the dirt to find them. I have no idea of the variety of tater I bought. the local feed store had 'seed taters' on the sign. I went in and they had white and red. I asked which grew better around here and was told the red. I wish I still had that book (library book) that said about how long it took to grow them in my region. just from memory, it doesn't seem like they should be ready yet. so bestofour, you think they should look more pitiful?

when planted in the ground the longer they're left the bigger they get so we usually wait until the top is almost dead. If you planted at least 3 weeks ago you probably have potatoes. Post a picture so we can see how big they got in that pot.

Well, the photo above is just from last week. I planted these a little over 2 months ago. the soil they are in is about half m.g. and half compost. I read they like a lot of organic matter and can be grown in just compost.

oh, and the pot they are in is about a 4 gallon pot.

The potatoes will get bigger and will store better if you wait until they are dead. But new potatoes are good too so there is nothing wrong with eating them now.

From what I understand, when the thing starts flowering you can get new potatoes, and when it freezes to death, you get the big ones.

I guess I'll hold off another week or two. I can't wait to see how many I'm gonna get, since I've never done them before.