Posted on 01/18/2012 10:52:44 AM PST by orsonwb
A complete planting guide for potatoes including state specific varieties, planting dates, days to harvest, nutrition facts, fertilizing, watering, insect and disease information.
(Excerpt) Read more at howdogardener.com ...
bookmarked, and thanks for posting.... i’ve been curious!
Thank you!
Prepper’s PING!
Garden ping!
A general question for the assembled multitude:
If you’ve got a bad growing season - cold, cloudy, rainy, etc, are root crops (carrots, potatoes, beets, etc.), which seem not to “ripen” like above-ground crops, generally edible/nutritious when half-grown?
If anyone is an experienced potato gardner, I have a question. I planted potatoes in a couple garden plots, with other root crops (beets, Jerusalem artichokes, and carrots), and never got around to digging some sections up (I was all gardened out). I live in zone 4/5, and am not sure if I should try and dig them up when the ground thaws, leave them in, or till them up and throw them away. Does anyone have an idea from their experience. Would they be mushy, rotten, etc? The soil is very good and drains well, but is snow covered. So in may mucky by the time the snow thaws. I suppose I could go dig throught the frozen ground, but wanted to ask someone before I got out the shovel.
Absolutely. In the case of all 3 plants you just named. Baby carrots, baby beets, and “new potatoes” are all eaten, and all popular. I’ve eaten all of the above. I wouldn’t eat a potato that’s neon green or anything, but I have never seen an inedible carrot. They start off as a tiny taproot and are orange and edible from the start (same with beets, just that they’re purple). All of the above are sold in stores.
Not sure about beets, but carrots and potatoes can be harvested and eaten while fairly small (ex. “new potatoes”). Just make sure they have not rotted from too much rain.
One they freeze they’re toast unfortunately and just mush out.
I don’t know about the beets but the potatoes and carrots are very edible and nutritious when picked young - Red potatoes when picked young are usually called “new potatoes” and are coveted by cooks.
bflr
A lot of people over the centuries ‘stored’ their potatoes in the ground, and dug as needed. Haven’t tried it myself; and I also don’t know if that was for human use or as animal feed.
Need to get them out after it starts to warm up, before they sprout themselves into unusability.
Haven’t done it on purpose myself, but here (Z-4) I usually find some I missed digging in the fall, when I do spring tilling.
Sunken Civ mentioned this to me a few years ago during a discussion on spuds. I believe articles were cited, so probably has something on this in the archives.
Thanks for the info.
I suspected that was the case, but was looking for confirmation.
Darn, ok. Well, they may be still frozen, maybe I can wash them and bake them, lol. Probably not. While digging up a previously used, but unmaintained (for years) section of the garden last year, we found the mother of all carrots that had been growing for years there. It’s was giant, gnarled, and woody. It gave me hope that they might have survived the winter, since I once hear that you can plant potatoes in fall so that you don’t have to in the spring. I guess not if they freeze!
Potato (((ping)))
Thanks for that information. That was my intention, was to dig them up as needed, but I waited too long and it got really cold. (We planted early, and they were fine, but the tops had died out by July, out of sight, out of mind). We’ll still be in very cold weather for about another month, so I guess I’ll have to get out in the snow and start digging. Thanks for giving me some hope at least, lol. I’ll let everyone know what happens. (If I remember that, too!)
Yep, my caroot tops were very big this year, and fast, and I had to dig many up for trial and error. I still ate them though, and they were great. Also, baby beets are good for pickling. You can buy them whole in cans, also. Very good, as they get harder/woodier with size.
Living in Alaska with the short growing season, I’ve found that it works better to sprout your potatoes by taking them out of the cellar about a month or two before actual planting.
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