new potatoes for market

18 years ago

Sorry for my utter lack of knowledge but I need to know...

Do you plant a section of potatoes that you will only use for new potatoes? Or are you somehow able to harvest enough new potatoes for sale without killing off the plant?

I have some red gold potatoes that are at just the right size for new potatoes right now but it just kills me when I pull up the plant, get 6 perfect little golf balls and then see 10 little buds on the plant that could give me a bigger harvest later on. I don't want to let the plants just keep going because last year I ended up with red potatoes that were the size of both of my fists together. Is there a way to "economically" get the new potatoes out of the ground without killing the plant?

What do you do?

(I also have fingerlings (russian banana) in the ground but they appear to have awhile before I need to worry about them. If anyone has any comments on those I would love it!)

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Comments (2)

jayreynolds
18 years ago
Strictly speaking, "new potatoes" are immature. Most storebought 'new potatoes' are simply smaller grades harvested at maturity. my customers are quite satisfied to buy mine fresh harvested but more mature than immature.

This link shows how to grow 'small potatoes', basically crowding them together, and choosing a variety known to run in the smaller sizes. Close planting is a common practice among commmercial pottao farmers to control max size of both 'Irish' potatoes and even sweet potatoes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing small potatoes
imtoobusy
Original Author
18 years ago
Great information Jay, thank you!

I did try to crowd them- planted them 6" apart- but I probably didn't plant large enough seed pieces.

My red gold plants haven't flowered at all yet but the potatoes are already at market size, the fingerlings are flowering but are too small for market.... Figuring out the nuances of each variety is interesting.
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