Sunday, September 19, 2010

Pokok ubi kentang (ジャガイモ)

I was not planning to grow potato this year because of space. We did not get much last year just one or two spud per plant and only enough for Rayyan puree. We did not have good drainage soil last year, most of it were clay and heavy soil. So after a year now the soil I think became easily dig because of gypsum and many compostable things were dig into the soil. In addition this summer, all the patch we going to add free horse manure into the soil as well. Suddenly I had 1 X 1 metre square space that I can plant something with in early August. Previously 6 cauliflower plant were grown here, only one left in the picture. My eyes does not like to see bare earth and no patience too. It was very cold back then and no seedling stock in our hand. I decided to just dig in some seed potatoes in this patch and see how it goes (Not in the plan at first hmmm…for potato, thought to plan capsicum here in end spring was the plan).  The potato plant growth are  very fast at the moment. Maybe because of the soil were prepared with horse manure or the temperature range here is now favourable for potato?

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5 days later after the above picture taken. So now we have a 1X1 metre area dedicated for potatoes.

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Potato growing in 3 black container with different stages of growth. 

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Left picture: Potato leave pushing itself out from the soil (above picture left pot close up picture)

Right picture: Above middle pot close up picture.

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Potato plant growing together with pot marigold in polystyrene box. The potato leaves has been under attack from what insect I do not know. Makes me wonder though how much pesticide were sprayed on potato bought in supermarket.

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I hope we have a decent harvest with potatoes this coming summer or autumn.

Dear friends, please advice on how to know when the potatoes are ready to harvest? Or some growing tip :).

5 comments:

miruku said...

Good afternoon!
I read from a book that when the leaves turned yellow that is the time you can harvest the potatoes. I tried once to grow potato, but it never a success, the potatoes underneath got stolen (by musang?)!! haha.
Happy Sunday to you.

Blessings
milka

Garden Mum said...

Potatoes are ready to harvest after they have flowered and the leaves are starting to turn yellow. You will get a bigger harvest if you 'earth up'around the stems as they grow. Basically just mound earth around the stem as it grows and the potatoes will have more room to grow. I love eating homegrown potatoes. Hope you get a good harvest:)

Sue Garrett said...

Usually we harvest once the leaves die back but many books say that once they flower they are ready. The best thing to do is scratch away some soil to see if you can see whether any good potatoes have been formed.

I have an article on one of my websites about Growing potatoes in containers that you may be interested in. Just click on the link

thyme2garden said...

Hello, I followed you back to your blog from your comment. I really enjoy connecting with gardeners from around the world.

I haven't grown potatoes myself, but I have read that they are ready to harvest when the foliage starts to die back. But like Green Lane Allotments says, I would probably start "peeking" under the soil to see if some potatoes are ready before doing the Big Dig.

I hope you get a great potato harvest from your garden!

Stephanie said...

Sorry I have not grown them before ;-( But I hope you will have plenty of potatoes when you harvest them later!