Store-Bought Potatoes

[muddstopper]

I sprayed my field taters with spinosad this past week. I saw a total of 5 tater bugs in the whole plot. Mommy and daddy of future generations of the bugs are now dead. The best defense for tater bugs is early detection and control. I havent seen any bugs on my pot planted taters.

 

[kyle1!]

My taters are doing well. They are not in the garden but a large igloo cooler with drainage, former brush pile that was burned a year ago and a crabgrass weed patch. Ran out of room in the garden

 

[TNTreeHugger]

So, been about 60 days since I planted my spuds and they are still looking great., although the plants are flopping over somewhat.
Do I wait until the plants are withered before checking for the taters? Would there be any there now?

Also, what do I do with them after digging?
Is there a curing process before eating them?

 

[muddstopper]

Taters are supposed to take about 90days to mature. If you did them at 60days, you might have a bunch of small ones, but I wouldnt expect any real large ones. I planted the first of March, my vines are starting to yellow and I have seen a few poke thru the top of the soil. I just cover them up and will let them go until the vines completely die back. You can reach your hand down into the soil and feel for what you have, but everytime I do that, I end up breaking one off the vine. Taste good, but only about the size of a baseball. I store my early taters in a cardboard box out of direct sunlite. A basement is a good place. Growing in buckets, I dont have a lot to store and we eat them pretty fast. My field panted taters, I leave in the ground as long as possible. Sometimes I see new vines grow, but not enough to worry about. When I do get around to digging them, I store them in boxes ubder my sones house. My wife s family stored taters there for 70 years and they always kept good.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Taters are supposed to take about 90days to mature. If you did them at 60days, you might have a bunch of small ones, but I wouldnt expect any real large ones. I planted the first of March, my vines are starting to yellow and I have seen a few poke thru the top of the soil. I just cover them up and will let them go until the vines completely die back. You can reach your hand down into the soil and feel for what you have, but everytime I do that, I end up breaking one off the vine. Taste good, but only about the size of a baseball. I store my early taters in a cardboard box out of direct sunlite. A basement is a good place. Growing in buckets, I dont have a lot to store and we eat them pretty fast. My field panted taters, I leave in the ground as long as possible. Sometimes I see new vines grow, but not enough to worry about. When I do get around to digging them, I store them in boxes ubder my sones house. My wife s family stored taters there for 70 years and they always kept good.

Baseball size is okay. But, I'll wait a little longer before poking around.
So, you can eat the taters right out of the ground, no curing process required?

 

[muddstopper]

Baseball size is okay. But, I'll wait a little longer before poking around.
So, you can eat the taters right out of the ground, no curing process required?

Eating right out of the ground, absolutely. Storeing takes a little care. I like to knock the dirt off and let them air dry in the sun for a few hours before putting in a box. That doesnt mean leaving the taters setting in the sun from morning to nite, just long enough that the dirt just rubs off. when we used to dig long rows of taters, we would just pile the taters along the rows until they where all dug out and then go back and pick them up. With my bucket taters, I just dump the pot in the bucket of my tractor, sift the taters out, and put the dirt back in the pot. When I get thru shorting the taters from the dirt and get the dirt back into the pots, the taters are generally dry enough to to store.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Here's what my YG taters are looking like today

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Here they are today

Going to check the plant on the end, in the corner there in the photo and see what's underground.
Ooooh, this is like looking for buried treasures!

 

[TNTreeHugger]

I grew potatoes!
Dug up half the row, leaving the rest until the end of the month, that'll be 90 days.
They would have done better if I'd had more depth... that side of the garden spot has a gravel base and I had to build up since I couldn't dig down. They only had about 6"-8"" of worked soil to grow in.
I'll plant them in a better spot next year.
Still - not a bug bite, worm hole, or blemish on a single one!!

 

[sonny580]

Looks good. Ya I mound mine 18" high and 36" wide here. Sis says I overdo it! lol! If I dont the spuds come up out of the ground and then they turn green so I dont have a choice but to make big mounds over them.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Looks good. Ya I mound mine 18" high and 36" wide here. Sis says I overdo it! lol! If I dont the spuds come up out of the ground and then they turn green so I dont have a choice but to make big mounds over them.

From the looks of your garden, and especially your sweet potatoes, I'd say you're an expert at what you're doing!

Mine weighed in at 6.5 lbs. total.
Sorted by size and cooked the small ones for lunch.
O.M.G.!!! They are SO Good! and only took about 5 minutes to cook.

There was one large funky looking tater, had a small root growing on it so I planted it back in the garden.
Might be one of the originals I bought at the store??

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Breakfast -
leftover boiled taters fried up with a little chopped onion and scrambled egg topped with a little Parm.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Dug up the last of my YG taters this morning.. 5.5 lbs., 12 lbs. total in all.
I'll call that success - especially since it wasn't planned.

I replanted four of them, just to see what happens.

 

[muddstopper]

I replanted four of them, just to see what happens.

I can tell what will happen. about the end of oct, you will have another crop of potatoes. My second crop in buckets is just now coming out of the ground. I am eating my first crop, planted in march, this looks to be my best year yet. I also just ordered two of those galvanzied raise beds from tractor supply. 8x 2x 17 in deep. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...d-for-vegetables-and-flowers-metalgardenbedgy They are on sale right now for $80 each. You have to order online and have shipped to store. My this year plans for the beds are to start filling them with weeds and chicken poop for next spring.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

I can tell what will happen. about the end of oct, you will have another crop of potatoes. My second crop in buckets is just now coming out of the ground. I am eating my first crop, planted in march, this looks to be my best year yet. I also just ordered two of those galvanzied raise beds from tractor supply. 8x 2x 17 in deep. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...d-for-vegetables-and-flowers-metalgardenbedgy They are on sale right now for $80 each. You have to order online and have shipped to store. My this year plans for the beds are to start filling them with weeds and chicken poop for next spring.

I'll plant a few more!

There's a guy on YT, in Australia, who has a lot of those raised bins. He starts filling them with larger chunks of wood that will take up a lot of the space, but also will decompose in time.
This is a new one he posted

 

[sean donato]

Don't think I'll be growing any more potatoes myself. Amish guy a few miles down the road sells produce fresh off his farm for less the half what it costs at the store. Got a 50lb sack of russet potatoes for $20.00 off him.

 

[Lionsfan]

Don't think I'll be growing any more potatoes myself. Amish guy a few miles down the road sells produce fresh off his farm for less the half what it costs at the store. Got a 50lb sack of russet potatoes for $20.00 off him.

There are several large scale farms in my area that sell to the general public from 50 lb. sacks to 1/2 ton crates to dump truck loads if you really like your taters. I'll still grow my own til the day I can't do it anymore.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Don't think I'll be growing any more potatoes myself. Amish guy a few miles down the road sells produce fresh off his farm for less the half what it costs at the store. Got a 50lb sack of russet potatoes for $20.00 off him.

The amount of veggies I eat is minimal.
I've been eating my YG taters nearly every day since I dug the first batch and the total 12lbs will last me, I'm guessing another two months.
Sure, I could have bought that much at Wallyworld, or the Amish market up the road for a few $$ instead of digging, watering, weeding, and waiting three months. But I don't use chemical fertilize or pesticide on mine... and no one has touched them but me.
I garden because I enjoy the process.
Now, tomatoes on the other hand, I don't have much luck with and this will probably be my last year trying.
I can buy one nice big fat Purple Cherokee from the Amish that will last me a week.
I'm having great luck with potatoes though.

 

[sean donato]

There are several large scale farms in my area that sell to the general public from 50 lb. sacks to 1/2 ton crates to dump truck loads if you really like your taters. I'll still grow my own til the day I can't do it anymore.

It's become more of a time thing for me. Even the small garden we did this year has been a bit much to tend between my/wife's work schedule kids schedule and getting the shop built. I finally weeded the garden right before I left for work this afternoon.

 

[sean donato]

The amount of veggies I eat is minimal.
I've been eating my YG taters nearly every day since I dug the first batch and the total 12lbs will last me, I'm guessing another two months.
Sure, I could have bought that much at Wallyworld, or the Amish market up the road for a few $$ instead of digging, watering, weeding, and waiting three months. But I don't use chemical fertilize or pesticide on mine... and no one has touched them but me.
I garden because I enjoy the process.
Now, tomatoes on the other hand, I don't have much luck with and this will probably be my last year trying.
I can buy one nice big fat Purple Cherokee from the Amish that will last me a week.
I'm having great luck with potatoes though.

It's a time thing for me, or lack of it. The Amish farm I went to are organic farmers. Lots of kids running around hoeing weeds. Not real worried about them using pesticides/insecticide. That 50lb bag should last us till winter give or take.