Vegetables
Planting & growing broccoli: it's that easy
Harvested in good time and stored correctly, potatoes can be kept until the next season without any problems. The healthy tuber contains many nutrients and carbohydrates that no self-catering garden should be without. Find out here how to harvest and store potatoes correctly.
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. If your plant dies much earlier, it may be infected with late blight. In this case, you should also act immediately and harvest your potatoes. Otherwise the tubers could become inedible. Do not dispose of the infected plant parts in the compost, otherwise the disease may spread in your garden.
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. Especially in a self-sufficient garden, it is important to have a balanced supply of different crops throughout the season. So plan for early potatoes and late potatoes in your garden if you want to supply yourself with tubers all year round.
Most potatoes are harvested when the green tops have died back. As long as the plant is growing, the potatoes are also growing in the soil. This is where early potatoes differ from late varieties, as they are often harvested with the green tops still on. This is why early harvests are usually not as productive and produce smaller but more aromatic potatoes.
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.
Potatoes can be stored very well unprocessed. A cool cellar or earth bunkers are best suited to keep the tubers fresh for a long time. To get the most out of your harvest for as long as possible, it is important not to store damaged tubers. Potatoes are also not washed after harvesting. Only remove coarse soil residues and leave the remaining soil on the potato. Wash the tubers immediately before eating them. Otherwise you will encourage rot or fungi, which can ruin your harvest. The ideal storage place 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. Due to the optimum storage temperatures for potatoes, you should not store potatoes in the fridge! This changes their taste and structure. At temperatures below 3°C, the starch in the tubers is converted into sugar, which makes the potatoes taste sweeter. Read more about storing potatoes correctly here.
I hope that your questions about harvesting and storing potatoes have been answered. If you have any questions or comments, please write to us at [email protected].
Want to get helpful gardening tips all year round and plan your own beds in the best possible way? Then register here or download the Fryd app for Android or iOS.
Fryd - Your digital bed planner
Image: Image by olarts on Pixabay
Marie is an agronomist. She is particularly interested in the sustainable and organic cultivation of vegetables and other plants. In her own garden, she gained experience and likes to try things out to learn from nature. She is particularly interested in the values and principles of permaculture, in order to contribute not only to the well-being of nature, but also to the well-being of people and future generations.
Learn moreWhen can you harvest potatoes?
This depends on whether you have planted early or late potatoes. Depending on the variety, the plants are in the bed for 3 to 5 months. Early potatoes are ready to harvest from June, while late potatoes can be harvested from September/October.
Can potatoes be harvested too early?
Yes, you can harvest potatoes too early. Make sure that you only harvest when the potato foliage has wilted. If you harvest too early, the skin will still be thin, which will affect the potatoes' shelf life.
First loosen the soil a little with a digging fork. Then you can pull the potatoes out of the ground by the potato greens or stolons. After harvesting, the potatoes are not grown, but only slightly freed of soil. Otherwise you risk rot.
You can only store undamaged potatoes, otherwise they will rot and damage the other potatoes. Your potato storage should be dark and cool. Alternatively, you can also freeze cooked potatoes.