Harvest

You can harvest young or “new” potatoes any time after they reach a usable size (for early varieties, this is about 50 days after planting). When you spot the first flowers, you can start harvesting a few new potatoes.

When the leaves turn yellow or die down, I stop watering and leave the potatoes in the ground for two more weeks. This allows the tubers to “set” the potato skins for storage. To harvest all of the tubers, use a spading fork and gently lift the entire root system. Shake the excess soil from the tubers. For potatoes grown in pots or grow bags, tip them onto a tarp and lift out the tubers.

Brush loose soil off the skins and let them dry for a day or two and brush them once more. If you wash the soil off, there’s a chance the wet potatoes will rot when stored. Potatoes can turn green when exposed to light so keep them in a dry dark cool place. That’s if you don’t eat them all in a month!

Sources

Many local garden centers begin stocking seed potatoes in spring. You can also try the following mail-order sources:

Johnny’s Selected Seed

877-564-6697

www.johnnyseeds.com

Seed Savers Exchange

563-382-5990

www.seedsavers.org

Territorial Seed Co.

800-626-0866

www.territorialseed.com