Harvesting potatoes: This is the right time
Harvesting potatoes: here's how
Potato plants send out a clear signal when they are ready to harvest: Their foliage begins to wither and dry out. Most potato plants remain in the bed for around 3 to 5 months until they are ready to harvest. After that, the plant dies and signals to you that you can harvest the potatoes.
When to harvest potatoes?
Depending on the potato variety, potatoes are harvested between June and October. Early potato varieties such as Christa or Annabelle produce the first potato harvest. As a gardener, you can take advantage of the different harvest windows for different potato varieties. So plan early potatoes and late potatoes in your garden if you want to supply yourself with tubers all year round.
When are early potatoes ready to harvest?
- These varieties take around 90 to 120 days to ripen and can be harvested from the beginning of June - Early potatoes are usually harvested when the haulm of the plant is still green - Early potatoes have a thin skin and a relatively high water content, so are not suitable for storage and should be eaten within a few days (you can also harvest the plants in stages so that you can use everything).
When are medium-early and medium-late potatoes ready to harvest?
- You can harvest these varieties after about 4 months (120 to 140 days), from about July to August - Medium varieties combine the good flavor of early varieties with the storage life of later varieties. They can be stored for about 3 months - Potatoes are ready to harvest after the foliage has withered and died. If you want to store them, it is best to wait another two weeks before harvesting. The skin will then become thicker, which improves the storage life.
When are late potatoes ready to harvest?
- Late potato varieties have the longest growing season and stay in the bed the longest: 140 to 160 days, about 5 months. These varieties are ready to harvest from around September to the end of October - They usually produce the largest harvests of potatoes that can be stored for a long time (if stored correctly, they can be kept until the following spring) - To increase the storage life, wait around 2 to 3 weeks after the haulm has died back before harvesting.
Can potatoes be harvested too early?
Potatoes are very sensitive to the cold and should be harvested before the first frost. As soon as they freeze, their cells are destroyed and they start to rot. However, if they are harvested too early, the skin cannot harden sufficiently and the potatoes are more susceptible to rotting.
How to harvest potatoes correctly?
- A dry day is best for harvesting potatoes. It should not have rained for a few days beforehand - Loosen the soil with a digging fork or potato hoe and lift it up a little. Be careful not to damage the tubers - Early potatoes can then simply be pulled out of the ground by the green part of the plant. For all other varieties, pull the potatoes out of the ground by the stolons - Remove a little soil from the potatoes in the field, but do not wash them!
Things to bear in mind when harvesting potatoes
- Try to find all the tubers in your bed. If you miss one, it may sprout again next year - Do not wash potatoes, as this promotes rotting and fungal diseases - Sort out potatoes with green spots directly in the field, as these contain the poison solanine and are not suitable for consumption - If you find particularly small potatoes, you can save them as seed potatoes for planting next year.
How do you store potatoes?
A cool cellar or earth mounds are best suited to keep the tubers fresh for a long time. It is important not to store damaged tubers and not to wash the potatoes after harvesting. The ideal storage location for potatoes is dark, dry and at temperatures between 4 and 8 °C. If the temperatures are too high, this stimulates the sprouting of the potatoes and they become inedible. Incidentally, the same happens if you store potatoes together with apples.
