Tubers

So, what does the cold weather mean for our potato crops?  Potatoes are frost tolerant up to a point but will not continue to grow over the winter. Consistently cold temperatures will kill the greens of the plant and any tubers left in the ground will go dormant before sending up new sprouts in the…

Growing potatoes can be a bit intimidating for beginner gardeners because it’s hard to tell how the tubers are doing underground. We have to depend on the greens to tell us of any problems with the plants.  So, what happens if potato plants start to grow abnormally tall? Luckily, potato plants really can’t grow too…

Any gardener that has ever grown potatoes knows that it’s easy to miss a potato or two in the harvesting process. Then, come springtime, we discover that we have a few volunteer potato plants growing from the tubers that got left behind. This led me to wonder if potatoes can come back year after year…

Having a crop in the garden not set flowers can be concerning for new and seasoned gardeners alike. Luckily, potato flowers, or a lack thereof, aren’t any cause for concern. Potatoes do not need to flower to produce tubers. Flowers can often be a sign that it’s getting close to harvest time. But, even without…

When it comes to growing potatoes, understanding the difference between seed potatoes and regular potatoes can be a bit confusing. But, it’s important to understand their differences to have a successful tuber harvest this season. The main difference between seed potatoes and regular potatoes is that regular potatoes are treated with a sprout inhibitor to…

There’s nothing worse than going to gather potatoes from storage only to find that most of them have rotted! Potatoes are supposed to have a pretty long shelf life so how could seemingly healthy potatoes all have gone bad in storage? The reason potatoes start to rot in storage is that diseases enter potatoes through…