Small Potatoes

Last year, the Pontiac Reds were almost all blighted. My theory at the time was that I waited too long to harvest, although I'm sure there was more to it than that. However, superstitious behavior does have its purpose and I decided to look early at some of the potatoes in both beds to guard against the possibility that I might postpone harvest too long.

In the Yukon Gold bed, I had one plant that was a volunteer from seed last year. It looked the most ready, but produced only 3 smallish tubers. There were two other plants in that bed that looked ready (flopped over and leaves starting to turn brown). It turns out they must have been Russets that I had plopped in the bed when a seed had failed to sprout. They also had relatively small tubers.

The Pontiac Reds (pictured) look much healthier than the Yukon Golds. The plants are just larger. There was one that was bent over and looked like it might be ready for harvest. I expect Pontiac Reds to be smaller potatoes. (The ones harvested last year that looked blighted were way too big for Pontiac Reds, which is one reason I felt I had left them in the ground too long.) From the one plant I pulled 9 tubers, of which 5 were the expected size.

The total weight of this early harvest was 3 pounds, half to the Pontiac Reds, half to the rest.