Each year I wait patiently in hopes of getting my hands on a box full of potatoes fresh from my Dad’s farm in the fall. He grows Red Pontiacs and once you’ve had them fresh from the ground to your dinner plate, it’s so hard to enjoy them from the store the rest of the year.
This is the first year that I have the space to grow potatoes successfully on my own. Last year I tried growing yellow potatoes in a half barrel but they didn’t amount to much more than the size of a golf ball – likely from lack of room.
I’ve been digging up a few here and there as I use them but with the vines completely gone by – my dad suggests I dig the rest up and store them before the rain sets in to avoid the risk of rotting.
When your potato plants look like this,
your potatoes should look like this.
Update 9/10/10
Mom: “Potatoes shouldn’t look like they have Scab!”
Alyse: *gasp* “It’s not scab, it’s dirt!”
But yes it kind of looks like scab. Scab is an annoying blemish potatoes get that is exactly what it sounds like – a scab. Potato scab is common but usually in highly alkaline soil which is uncommon in Seattle. My potatoes are scab free. If you get scab, don’t worry too much about it, just clean those parts off and read up on how to avoid it.
