As we only have a small area to grow our veg in, harvesting is usually left until we can get the best from the crop, rather than pulling things up before they are ready! This way we get the best veg from the space. The only real exception to this usually is the carrots and onions, which get raided whenever we get the chance!
At the weekend, i got quite excited (like i do!) about the rest of the early Ulster Sceptre potatoes. Rather than pull up the entire plants, i decided to delve my hand into the soil underneath each plant, and see what i could find. As you can see from the picture, i found about 600g from the metre row, of three initial tubers.
Not bad that! The plants are holding up nicely after my intrusion, so hopefully will produce a further crop within 3 weeks, when they will need to come out so that the courgettes and squashes can use the space. I don’t see any reason why this cannot be a regular thing with earlies, who says the plant has to be dug up? As long as the soil is pliable enough, dig in!
Tags: harvesting early potatoes, how to harvest potatoes, ulster sceptre
June 17th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Oooo I did the very same thing yesterday, but I have to say my first little crop from my two potato buckets was much smaller, 6 tats so far, the rest were either still too small or were below the level of my marigolds!!
I think everyone should get stuck in and pull out a lovely harvest, then you can always go back for more yummy…
June 18th, 2008 at 12:44 am
Harvesting potatoes is such a joy because it’s always so much fun to see a real harvest!