Potatoes, like all root crops, are harvested most efficiently bydigging them up.
Read on to discover how and when to harvest both kinds of potatoes.
Note that they can tolerate a very light frost.
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Theflowers and foliagedetermine when to best harvest your crop.
For baby potatoes (new potatoes), wait for two or three weeks after they’ve finished flowering.
Harvesting New Potatoes
New potatoes are small, tender potatoes that are harvested and eaten right away.
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They do not store well.
Typically, the potatoes are about 4 inches to 6 inches deep in the soil.
Store new potatoes in a dark location at a temperature of 38 to 40 degrees.
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Keep hilling up thesoilor addmulcharound the plants, so the tubers aren’t exposed to sunlight.
Once the foliage has died back at the top, dig up your tubers with a garden fork.
But the signal for beginning the harvest is the samewait until the foliage dies back.
Check the potatoes for ripeness by rubbing the skins with your thumb.
Then, brush off any dry soil, andstore in a dark, cool placeat 38 to 40 degrees.
Stored potatoes should also be kept dry, so the refrigerator is not a good option.
Discard any potatoes that have damaged skins, or eat them right away.
Damaged potatoes won’t store for long.
Potatoes that have been cured and ripened in the ground may keep for months.
Avoid exposing them to light during curing and storage, which will turn the potatoes green.
Never eat the potato skins that are green in color or green eyes and shoots.
Soon, the eyes will begin to grow green shoots.
When planting time comes, cut large potatoes into two-ounce segments so that each segment contains a sprout.
Let the potato pieces sit out for a few days, cut side up.
This allows a protective skin to form on the exposed flesh and helps to prevent disease.
Once the cut side has turned dark, plant the pieces with the eye or sprout pointing up.
Each potato segment will produce an entire hill of potatoes in a few months.
If you leave potatoes in the ground for too long they will start to crowd each other.
It’s recommended that you dig them up and replant them rather than leaving them in the ground.
You should stop watering potato plants a few weeks before harvest or when the foliage begins to turn yellow.
Potato plant poisoninggreen tubers and sprouts.Mount Sinai Health Library.
