How do you know potatoes ready in growing bag

average_runner

HI All;

I have two potatoe bags in back garden. One is a late potatoe but the other is an early one. The early bag has very big plants in it now so wondering how do you know when dig up the potatoes?

thanks

lucylu

have the early variety flowered yet?

average_runner

No flower yet, is it when the flower comes out i did them up?

lucylu

Potatoes are ready for harvest when they flower and their foliage first starts to die and turn yellow. Early (new) potatoes can be lifted earlier (no earlier than June )
In this case, harvest them about a week after the potato plant flowers first appear. New potatoes only produce a couple of handfuls of potatoes per plant, so dig up the whole plant.

Curvy Vixen

Once the foliage has started to die back I wouldn't recommend pulling up the whole plant straight away...snuggle your hand down into the dirt a bit and have a root around. You should come across a potato pretty quickly

If you can, just do this for a few days and take up the amount of actual potatoes that you need. It'll get to the stage where you will need to take out the whole plant but the gentler you root around the longer what's in there can grow.

My first year I found a couple of nice sized potatoes towards the top of the tub and pulled the plant. But it had a good few tiny ones still growing at the bottom that, had I had left it alone, would have grown big enough to eat.

It's just so tempting to pull them though