Harvesting new potatoes?

[High Cheese]

I planted a few a while back and they now have flowers on them. when is the bet time to harvest so they arent too big?

[ChowderMan]

the flowering indicates that they are starting to make spuds.

for 'new' potatoes I like to wait until the f irst flush of flowering has dropped off - digging too soon you can get really really tiny taters [g]

I wait until the vines start to die back to harvest 'the main crop' - but you can harvest continuously, flowers+ to post frost.

[Leni]

The spuds are close to the surface and close to the stem of the plant. If you're careful you can pull the soil away and see how big they are.

[leolady]

What soil?

I always plant my potatoes on top of the soil and cover them with straw or hay. Moving a little straw or hay is lots easier than digging up dirt.

[High Cheese]

IDK what soil, whatever my yard is. lol I'll try to take a peek this weekend. Keeping my fingers crossed, first time growing purple potatoes.

[Leni]

One of my fellow gardeners at the community garden planted potatoes in lawn clippings for the same reason leolady used hay or straw. You have to be carefull though. Burmuda grass will sprout from clippings and they are a hard weed to get rid of. I've seen others use hay but the weeds from the seeds in it just take over. So for the time being I plant my potatoes in the soil. Anyone ever try using a mulch?

[leolady]

Burmuda grass will sprout from clippings and they are a hard weed to get rid of. I've seen others use hay but the weeds from the seeds in it just take over. So for the time being I plant my potatoes in the soil. Anyone ever try using a mulch?

If weeds took over, then they apparently did not apply the mulch thick enough. The good thing is that if a weed does appear they are not hard to pull or smother with more mulch.

[ChowderMan]

>>mulch -

I have used "leaf mold" for several thousand years... chop up the fall leaves, compost in a heap over the winter, after the potatoes sprout add about 8" of the leaf mold around the plants

[leolady]

Leaf mold is garden gold!!! I love to use them when they are available.

Leaves were in short supply this year, so I only used them on my new asparagus bed.

I generally just pile the leaves over the garden in the fall without chopping them. Then in the spring, I rake a row and plant.

[Leni]

Here in Los Angeles we don't get too much in the way of leaf mold. There are numerous trees at the community garden center but some are not good to use. They inhibit the growth of the veggies or kill them. I don't think that I want to use the leaves that have fallen into the street and end up in the gutter.

[buckytom]

for harvesting, i agree with the chowderman. the plants should begin to die for the main harvest, but a little earlier and a little later will produce proprtionate results.