I got taters!

[Chickchic]

I have posted here a few times about my tater plants. They bloomed about a month or so ago and the plants seem to still be growing well. I dig through the dirt periodically to check to see how things are progressing and then recover. I am out of taters to eat so decided to go see if I had any big enough to pick yet.

I came back with these. (shown with a large egg)

The small ones I got off a plant that had died completely so figured to not waste them.

I also have been getting Green Beans like crazy. The first plant got eaten by grasshoppers bad but they must have moved on as its coming back to life well. They are pole beans I think, but are growing in two different spots alon a fence. I never liked fresh green beans as a kid, but they are not so bad anymore.
I will definetly plant a lot more of these next year!

 

[Seahound]

Your potatoes and bean are beautiful. I love Fresh Taters !

 

[Rio_Lindo_AZ]

Nice!

I love the beans. Some look a bit rough and bumby though. Pick them as soon as they become ripe you you can have a longer harvest. :-}

 

[bills]

I wasn't a fan of many veggies when I was a kid. Took me years to figure out that my parents didn't know how to cook them. They boiled the daylights out of them. Why, I will never know, as they are no longer around to ask (GRTS), but I suspect it was because there parents probably did them that way.

Most of the veggies I hated as a kid, I now love to eat raw, in most cases, or just slightly blanched, as for green beans. Thankfully I figured it out, or the diet could have been a very limited one.

 

[Chickchic]

I totally agree Bills,

My mother boiled everything when I was a kid, butternut squash, turnips, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and then mashed them all. I never ate them any other way than that (difference is I did like them all) but now, I find it delightful to try things a different way from that. Sweet potatoes with marshmellows was unheard of back then to my mom!

Chicken_Boy - When you say the beans look bumpy, do you mean the beans inside got too big? This being the first year I grow them, I am not sure how big they are supposed to be to pick. I have been letting them get that big should I pick them smaller?

I tried the potatoes last night, they do not bake in the oven well, not crispy skin, oh well. The insides are PINK!!! Not like the red potatoes I buy in the store, scared me at first. They didnt really taste like much, kinda bland. :/

 

[RedClayGardener]

Is it true that you can plant sprouted potatoes in the ground and they will grow into a plant that produces? If so how and when can you do this? How long do they take? Any helpful hints? I would love to grow potatoes and I have a couple of small new potatoes that a sprouting right now.

Thanks!

 

[Chickchic]

I went and bought seed potatoes this spring to plant, apparently the ones that you buy in the store have something on them that inhibits sprouts so can't use those I guess. But if yours are sprouting, you could use them I guess?
I planted mine in May (I think) and that was a lot later in the year than most people I guess do it. I am just starting to be able to pick mine of a good size so like at least 3 months?

 

[Nyappy Garden]

Is it true that you can plant sprouted potatoes in the ground and they will grow into a plant that produces? If so how and when can you do this? How long do they take? Any helpful hints? I would love to grow potatoes and I have a couple of small new potatoes that a sprouting right now.

They can produce, we had some potatoes that went kind of bad this year so we cut a section off were there was a sprout and planted it, they grew and produced some potatoes, they were small though. They might have been about the size of the small potatoes in Chickchic's photo or smaller. I think with the potatoes from a store they do produce but they don't get big, or produce a lot. I thought we wouldn't get anything because I tried a potato last year and never got anything, but I probably planted it to late. I also planted some small red potatoes we got from the farmers market, nothing was coming up after a week or two so I dug around to see if anything was growing and I'am sure I found shriveled up potatoes but several weeks later I found plants growing so I hope we get something.

 

[silkiechicken]

Pick the beans just before you can start to see lumps on them. If they start to set seed, the plant will slow down on making new beans.

You'll want to use Certified seed potatoes because of disease issues. You don't want to bring home a spud, plant it, and find out your soil got contaminated and ruins your potatoes for years to come.

I don't do early potoates as I feel it is a waste of a plant. I do however wait a few weeks after all the vines die back and turn over all the plants and pull potatoes that are the size of a quarter to one lb a piece. I figure why dig up new potatoes when the plant if flowering if you can still get small ones at the end after the plant dies.

I think red potatoes are really starchy so won't really get a crispy skin. However, after you dig them up, leave them on the ground for a few days or lay them out in a dark place for a while so that the skin can cure and become "tough" for storage if you want to keep them around. That might make a difference when it comes to bake too.