Potato Mistake

[itsybitsy]

Urgh - I've just pulled two new potato plants up - and NO potatoes! Upon further investigations it would appear that I may have pulled them too soon? Does that sound about right? The plants in question both had flowers on them when I pulled them.

[jansman]

Hmmm. You are probably right, but when flowers are on, there should be some evidence of spuds. Rather a shame after the effort isn't it?

[preppingsu]

We dug up our new potatoes over the last few weeks, as and when we needed them. I have started to dig up our main crop but it is fair too early, but I needed them.
I certainly haven't planted enough to get us through the winter - just bad planning on my part.

Have you dug around where the plant was. Sometimes if you just pull up the plant you leave the spuds in the soil.

[itsybitsy]

We dug up our new potatoes over the last few weeks, as and when we needed them. I have started to dig up our main crop but it is fair too early, but I needed them.
I certainly haven't planted enough to get us through the winter - just bad planning on my part.

Have you dug around where the plant was. Sometimes if you just pull up the plant you leave the spuds in the soil.

I grow in pots, Su, as I don't have anywhere to plant stuff in the actual garden. I must have been just too early. There was plenty of tubers but no potatoes.

I planted them late this year, because the weather was so bad, but I will get them in a bit earlier next year.

[junmist]

My pot ones have been terrible very small and low yield yet I have been watering them really well so it's not lack of water I have one plant that is in the ground that has only just flowered so will wait until later to see what they are like but I'm not holding out much hope

[JBird]

Ive not planted any pots this year, but all of my veg has been pathetic (except strawberries).

Damn weather

[Panther]

I always wait until the plants have completely withered and died before digging them up to harvest the crop.

They haven't all died back yet so they're still in the ground at present. I'll hopefully dig them up in about a week or so. Fingers crossed till then.

[Panther]

Potatoes are a regular crop in the fields around here. Even with modern day farming techniques there tend to be many potatoes left behind after harvesting is completed.
Anyone practicing the ancient country pursuit of gleaning could easily fill a couple of buckets in no time at all !!

Not that I would ever resort to stealing, I hasten to add.

[hobo]

Well, on the plus side my crop wasn't decimated by blight like last year.
This year I grew them on a different part of my allotment. I too have had to dig them up early because I didn't like the look of the yellowing leaves (either blight again or overwatering?). I grew 3 different varieties and they're all smaller than expected because of harvesting them early. They're mostly in good health but there's too few of them. So it's off to Aldi for me to stock up on tins and fresh!

[grenfell]

I normally wait until the tops are withered before lifting.
This year I'm growing several varieties and keeping a record of the crop. It's something I'd always meant to do but somehow never got around to. As well the known varieties I also have a bed of potatoes that were rescued from peoples garden waste bins which will also be going in the record, most are probably common varieties such as maris piper but I can't say for sure. It's amazing just how many pots end up in the bin just because they have started sprouting. There are also several self sets that will be going in the book.
To date I've lifted some Homeguards and some Rocket .The homeguards are earlies and tasted ok but the yield was poor and the tubers small. The rocket was much better , good taste lots of them and a good size for baking too.
As an experiment I've just put some more potatoes in. Again they were some that were "rescued" from a bin so I'm unsure of the variety but they were all sprouting and healthy looking so nothing ventured and all that.