How to Tell When Potatoes Are Ready to Harvest

Harvest potatoes before the weather gets too cold.

A hearty garden staple, potato plants offer reliable dinner accompaniments in the form of mashed potatoes, potato soup, baked potatoes, skillet potatoes and many other possibilities. If you're a new gardener wondering what's going on under the ground and when you can harvest your potatoes, don't worry. There are a few reliable guidelines you can use to ensure you harvest when the potatoes are mature and most flavorful.

Instructions

1. Harvest potatoes once the vines have flowered if you want "new potatoes," which are smaller in size than regular potatoes. New potatoes are 1 to 2 inches in size and work well in soups or roasted as a side dish.

2. Leave the potatoes in the ground if you want large baking-sized potatoes. Continue to water the plants and watch the vines. Once the vines on your potato plants have died back, you should start to harvest your crop. This should be sometime in late summer or early autumn.

3. Keep track of the days your potato plants have been in the ground. Potato plants take 90 to 100 days to mature for harvest, so use the time frame as a secondary guideline if you're worried about harvesting too soon or too late.

4. Harvest potatoes on a clear, warm day when no rain is forecast. If the soil is wet from recent rain, hold off on digging up the potatoes. Harvesting in wet weather or when it is cold, about 40 degrees F, may lead the potatoes to crack and bruise.

References

• University of Illinois Extension: Potato
• Mother Nature Network: When to Harvest Potatoes