We grow some potatoes in the garden every year and every year I harvest them the same way. I start at the edge of the bed and put the pitchfork down about 3-4 inches, then I flip up the dirt in front of the prongs. If there are potatoes there, they go into the basket, if not, I keep moving on, stabbing and flipping along the row until I find something. No matter how careful I am, I generally impale a few tubers in the process. Not a big loss, we put those in the "eat quick" pile and store the rest in the cellar.

Does anyone have a better way to harvest them?


Paul

Pavel314 wrote:
We grow some potatoes in the garden every year and every year I
harvest them the same way. I start at the edge of the bed and put the
pitchfork down about 3-4 inches, then I flip up the dirt in front of
the prongs. If there are potatoes there, they go into the basket, if
not, I keep moving on, stabbing and flipping along the row until I
find something. No matter how careful I am, I generally impale a few
tubers in the process. Not a big loss, we put those in the "eat
quick" pile and store the rest in the cellar.

Does anyone have a better way to harvest them?


Paul

I'm new to the tater scene , but years ago I read about a method using
tires . Stack 'em up and fill with mulch as the tater plants grow . I have
modified that method to use extra tomato cages* , piling up straw as the
plants grow . Mine all now have at least 18-24 inches of straw in the cages
and I need more straw . I was concerned about exposing the potatoes to light
, but that hasn't happened , and if it does I'll wrap them with either black
plastic or tarpaper .
--
Snag
* I bought a roll of concrete rewire to make cages for the tomatoes with the
intent of selling a few to defray the cost . Nobody's buying , so I ended up
using some for cucumbers , the rest are on my taters .

On Friday, July 18, 2014 9:40:08 AM UTC-4, Terry Coombs wrote:
Pavel314 wrote:

We grow some potatoes in the garden every year and every year I

harvest them the same way. I start at the edge of the bed and put the

pitchfork down about 3-4 inches, then I flip up the dirt in front of

the prongs. If there are potatoes there, they go into the basket, if

not, I keep moving on, stabbing and flipping along the row until I

find something. No matter how careful I am, I generally impale a few

tubers in the process. Not a big loss, we put those in the "eat

quick" pile and store the rest in the cellar.



Does anyone have a better way to harvest them?





Paul



I'm new to the tater scene , but years ago I read about a method using

tires . Stack 'em up and fill with mulch as the tater plants grow . I have

modified that method to use extra tomato cages* , piling up straw as the

plants grow . Mine all now have at least 18-24 inches of straw in the cages

and I need more straw . I was concerned about exposing the potatoes to light

, but that hasn't happened , and if it does I'll wrap them with either black

plastic or tarpaper .

--

Snag

* I bought a roll of concrete rewire to make cages for the tomatoes with the

intent of selling a few to defray the cost . Nobody's buying , so I ended up

using some for cucumbers , the rest are on my taters .

I've heard of the straw method but never tried it; good luck with that. A few years ago I made a cage of hardware cloth, put potatoes at the bottom and covered with rich, loose soil. As the plants grew, I added more dirt, layer after layer. We kept up with the watering, too. After the plants died back, I opened the cage and found only three or four potatoes inside. Not sure what went wrong; I'll have to try again.

Paul

i'm not a potato grower, but the other day
someone mentioned to me that they grow theirs
by putting the potato starts under hay bales
so that when they are done they just pull the
bales back and the potatoes are right there.


songbird

On 7/18/2014 8:40 AM, Terry Coombs wrote:
Pavel314 wrote:
We grow some potatoes in the garden every year and every year I
harvest them the same way. I start at the edge of the bed and put the
pitchfork down about 3-4 inches, then I flip up the dirt in front of
the prongs. If there are potatoes there, they go into the basket, if
not, I keep moving on, stabbing and flipping along the row until I
find something. No matter how careful I am, I generally impale a few
tubers in the process. Not a big loss, we put those in the "eat
quick" pile and store the rest in the cellar.

Does anyone have a better way to harvest them?


Paul

I'm new to the tater scene , but years ago I read about a method using
tires . Stack 'em up and fill with mulch as the tater plants grow . I have
modified that method to use extra tomato cages* , piling up straw as the
plants grow . Mine all now have at least 18-24 inches of straw in the cages
and I need more straw . I was concerned about exposing the potatoes to light
, but that hasn't happened , and if it does I'll wrap them with either black
plastic or tarpaper .
--
Snag
* I bought a roll of concrete rewire to make cages for the tomatoes with the
intent of selling a few to defray the cost . Nobody's buying , so I ended up
using some for cucumbers , the rest are on my taters .


I did that same thing years ago, made a bunch of tomato cages out of
heavy duty concrete wire, they were three feet in diameter, they lasted
over twenty-five years and two moves. One year I tried the tater thing
by planting the potatoes in the bottom of the cage, then layering oak
leaves, of which we always had plenty, up to about four feet. Had the
same problem other folks had, two or three taters down in the dirt,
nothing above but a really long, skinny tater vine. Hope it works for
you, I never tried it again.

George

Pavel314 wrote:
On Friday, July 18, 2014 9:40:08 AM UTC-4, Terry Coombs wrote:
Pavel314 wrote:

We grow some potatoes in the garden every year and every year I

harvest them the same way. I start at the edge of the bed and put
the

pitchfork down about 3-4 inches, then I flip up the dirt in front of

the prongs. If there are potatoes there, they go into the basket, if

not, I keep moving on, stabbing and flipping along the row until I

find something. No matter how careful I am, I generally impale a few

tubers in the process. Not a big loss, we put those in the "eat

quick" pile and store the rest in the cellar.



Does anyone have a better way to harvest them?





Paul



I'm new to the tater scene , but years ago I read about a method
using

tires . Stack 'em up and fill with mulch as the tater plants grow .
I have

modified that method to use extra tomato cages* , piling up straw as
the

plants grow . Mine all now have at least 18-24 inches of straw in
the cages

and I need more straw . I was concerned about exposing the potatoes
to light

, but that hasn't happened , and if it does I'll wrap them with
either black

plastic or tarpaper .

--

Snag

* I bought a roll of concrete rewire to make cages for the tomatoes
with the

intent of selling a few to defray the cost . Nobody's buying , so I
ended up

using some for cucumbers , the rest are on my taters .

I've heard of the straw method but never tried it; good luck with
that. A few years ago I made a cage of hardware cloth, put potatoes
at the bottom and covered with rich, loose soil. As the plants grew,
I added more dirt, layer after layer. We kept up with the watering,
too. After the plants died back, I opened the cage and found only
three or four potatoes inside. Not sure what went wrong; I'll have to
try again.

Paul

Did your potato plants blossom ? I've been told they have to bloom before
they'll make taters . I still pretty new to a lot of this stuff , and I'm
growing stuff I've never tried /been successful at .

--
Snag

George Shirley wrote:
On 7/18/2014 8:40 AM, Terry Coombs wrote:
Pavel314 wrote:
We grow some potatoes in the garden every year and every year I
harvest them the same way. I start at the edge of the bed and put
the pitchfork down about 3-4 inches, then I flip up the dirt in
front of the prongs. If there are potatoes there, they go into the
basket, if not, I keep moving on, stabbing and flipping along the
row until I find something. No matter how careful I am, I generally
impale a few tubers in the process. Not a big loss, we put those in
the "eat quick" pile and store the rest in the cellar.

Does anyone have a better way to harvest them?


Paul

I'm new to the tater scene , but years ago I read about a method
using tires . Stack 'em up and fill with mulch as the tater plants
grow . I have modified that method to use extra tomato cages* ,
piling up straw as the plants grow . Mine all now have at least
18-24 inches of straw in the cages and I need more straw . I was
concerned about exposing the potatoes to light , but that hasn't
happened , and if it does I'll wrap them with either black plastic
or tarpaper . --
Snag
* I bought a roll of concrete rewire to make cages for the tomatoes
with the intent of selling a few to defray the cost . Nobody's
buying , so I ended up using some for cucumbers , the rest are on my
taters .
I did that same thing years ago, made a bunch of tomato cages out of
heavy duty concrete wire, they were three feet in diameter, they
lasted over twenty-five years and two moves. One year I tried the
tater thing by planting the potatoes in the bottom of the cage, then
layering oak leaves, of which we always had plenty, up to about four
feet. Had the same problem other folks had, two or three taters down
in the dirt, nothing above but a really long, skinny tater vine. Hope
it works for you, I never tried it again.

George

See my reply to Pavel blooming .

--
Snag

Pavel314 wrote:
We grow some potatoes in the garden every year and every year I
harvest them the same way. I start at the edge of the bed and put the
pitchfork down about 3-4 inches, then I flip up the dirt in front of
the prongs. If there are potatoes there, they go into the basket, if
not, I keep moving on, stabbing and flipping along the row until I
find something. No matter how careful I am, I generally impale a few
tubers in the process. Not a big loss, we put those in the "eat
quick" pile and store the rest in the cellar.

Does anyone have a better way to harvest them?


Paul

--

My method is to locate the above ground part of the plant first. For taters
this is the stem. For the sweet tater I grow it is the node on the vine.
The reason is the tubers will always be underneath that. There is a problem
with "sweet potato" in that they can be true sweet potatoes or yams. The
ones I am talking about have elongated tubers pointy at both ends with
off-white flesh that is medium sweet.

I then place the fork about 25-30cm (10in-12in) back from it and push down
the full depth levering out a large clod. Usually this will expose the
tuber cluster. I then put the fork underneath and lever up pulling the
spuds out as they become visible. If the cluster seems very prolific I
might do this several times. I rarely spike one. It helps to dig when the
soil is medium dry not wet as it will clod but not be sticky.

Another clue to location with standard taters is the new tubers will be
nearly all at the same depth that you planted the seed tater. I plant in
trenches and backfill as they grow back to ground level, so I know how deep
the trench was. With sweets the tater grows vertically down from the node,
the depth of the bottom of it depends on the size. The diameter of the top
will give a clue as to size.

David

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A better world requires a daily struggle
against those who would mislead us.

Pavel314 wrote:
We grow some potatoes in the garden every year and every year I
harvest them the same way. I start at the edge of the bed and put the
pitchfork down about 3-4 inches, then I flip up the dirt in front of
the prongs. If there are potatoes there, they go into the basket, if
not, I keep moving on, stabbing and flipping along the row until I
find something. No matter how careful I am, I generally impale a few
tubers in the process. Not a big loss, we put those in the "eat
quick" pile and store the rest in the cellar.

Does anyone have a better way to harvest them?

I start outside of where I think they are, then push under the potatoes and
lever them up with the tines of the fork. As I go further in, I continue to try
to push the fork in from outside angleing under the tubers before lifting.

On Friday, July 18, 2014 3:03:18 PM UTC-4, Terry Coombs wrote:
Pavel314 wrote:

On Friday, July 18, 2014 9:40:08 AM UTC-4, Terry Coombs wrote:

Pavel314 wrote:



We grow some potatoes in the garden every year and every year I



harvest them the same way. I start at the edge of the bed and put

the



pitchfork down about 3-4 inches, then I flip up the dirt in front of



the prongs. If there are potatoes there, they go into the basket, if



not, I keep moving on, stabbing and flipping along the row until I



find something. No matter how careful I am, I generally impale a few



tubers in the process. Not a big loss, we put those in the "eat



quick" pile and store the rest in the cellar.







Does anyone have a better way to harvest them?











Paul







I'm new to the tater scene , but years ago I read about a method

using



tires . Stack 'em up and fill with mulch as the tater plants grow .

I have



modified that method to use extra tomato cages* , piling up straw as

the



plants grow . Mine all now have at least 18-24 inches of straw in

the cages



and I need more straw . I was concerned about exposing the potatoes

to light



, but that hasn't happened , and if it does I'll wrap them with

either black



plastic or tarpaper .



--



Snag



* I bought a roll of concrete rewire to make cages for the tomatoes

with the



intent of selling a few to defray the cost . Nobody's buying , so I

ended up



using some for cucumbers , the rest are on my taters .



I've heard of the straw method but never tried it; good luck with

that. A few years ago I made a cage of hardware cloth, put potatoes

at the bottom and covered with rich, loose soil. As the plants grew,

I added more dirt, layer after layer. We kept up with the watering,

too. After the plants died back, I opened the cage and found only

three or four potatoes inside. Not sure what went wrong; I'll have to

try again.



Paul



Did your potato plants blossom ? I've been told they have to bloom before

they'll make taters . I still pretty new to a lot of this stuff , and I'm

growing stuff I've never tried /been successful at .



--

Snag

I don't remember if they blossomed or not, it's been a few years. If I try that again, I'll watch for blossoms.

Paul

On 18/07/2014 10:34 PM, Pavel314 wrote:
We grow some potatoes in the garden every year and every year I harvest them the same way. I start at the edge of the bed and put the pitchfork down about 3-4 inches, then I flip up the dirt in front of the prongs. If there are potatoes there, they go into the basket, if not, I keep moving on, stabbing and flipping along the row until I find something. No matter how careful I am, I generally impale a few tubers in the process. Not a big loss, we put those in the "eat quick" pile and store the rest in the cellar.

Does anyone have a better way to harvest them?


I just use my gloved hands and bandicoot harvest as I need spuds IF I'm
growing in good friable soil.

If the soil is not so good I use a fork and shove it down the side of
the bed in one spot and work on form there as I need more spuds in the
kitchen. I know where I've harvested because I leave a hole and keep
workign onwards from where I started.

And potatoes don't need to produce a good lot of flowers to produce
spuds - as far as I'm concerned there is no correlation between flower
numbers and spud numbers.

Fran Farmer wrote:
On 18/07/2014 10:34 PM, Pavel314 wrote:
We grow some potatoes in the garden every year and every year I
harvest them the same way. I start at the edge of the bed and put
the pitchfork down about 3-4 inches, then I flip up the dirt in
front of the prongs. If there are potatoes there, they go into the
basket, if not, I keep moving on, stabbing and flipping along the
row until I find something. No matter how careful I am, I generally
impale a few tubers in the process. Not a big loss, we put those in
the "eat quick" pile and store the rest in the cellar. Does anyone
have a better way to harvest them?


I just use my gloved hands and bandicoot harvest as I need spuds IF
I'm growing in good friable soil.

If the soil is not so good I use a fork and shove it down the side of
the bed in one spot and work on form there as I need more spuds in the
kitchen. I know where I've harvested because I leave a hole and keep
workign onwards from where I started.

And potatoes don't need to produce a good lot of flowers to produce
spuds - as far as I'm concerned there is no correlation between flower
numbers and spud numbers.

I can't think of any direct conection either. At a general level perhaps
good flowering might indicate a healthy plant that stands a chance of good
tubers but that's about all. Strong tops are required for strong tubers but
not sufficient, that is you can get good tops with few taters but you can't
get good taters from poor tops.

If you are thinking of breeding your own cultivar then flowers do become
important.


David

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A better world requires a daily struggle
against those who would mislead us.