Potatotes, onions, and garlic

[Pjames]

You could even add in beets radishes annd a few other root crops, but my question is...HOW you tell by the plant above ground when the plant has maximized it's food storage underground to get the best harvest.

 I have the best potato plants this year I have had. (Only 2 years so that is not saying much but still ...They look good) ...I saw a few flowers on them yesterday but they show no sign of dying back. I could hill them again, but I probably have about 8 inches after it settled around each plant.

My candy onions are not done growing...I hope. Some are showing some bulbing. I was about to bury them when I saw the posts about loosening the soil or at least letting them grow with the bulb exposed. Some of my bulbs have to be underground(the plants above ground are as big as the ones with big bulbs showing) so I guess I need to dig around them...

I got a handfull of potatoes last year and replanted some for a fall crop. I saved most of that for this year's seed potatoes.. i have never got an adequate bulb from garlic or onion. My garlics are spindly so i don;t think i will be getting any big bulbs there anyway...

[mudfish2]

Hi Pjames-

I do not know if it was coincidence or not but after I put out the compost / worm tea my Candies have done much better.  Maybe my soil was lacking whatever is in this stuff.  I had basically large scallions two weeks ago and now a bunch of them are tennis ball size.  Their tops have grown aprrox 5" taller and gotten much thicker.  I did go out their with a hose and wash some dirt from around the bulds.  If you do this be a little careful because it is not hard to expose roots.

I planted a few garlics also.  They were doing good until about 3 weeks ago.  I did not put the tea on these.  Next time I will. 

I dug some potatos last weekend.  I just dug the ones that had started to die back pretty good.  I have a bunch more of them that seem to be growing great guns.  I really do not understand why some die before others and they were all planted at the same time.  Go figure.

[Oldiron]

Can't speak for the potatoes but onions are easy. When the top of the onion falls over it's time to pull it. Garlic is a little more problematic. When the leaves at the bottom of the plant turn brown it's getting close to time to harvest. If you leave garlic in the ground to long the cloves start to separate from the bulb. If that happens you need to use that garlic soon because it will not store well. It helps to sacrifice a bulb a little early to check to see if it's well formed and ready than to let it go to long.

[Stryker]

It is easy to tell with potatoes up here because the first freeze kills them. The potato plant will start to look like it is dying back and that is when you can harvest. If they just flowered you still have a month or three before they will try to think about to die back. Depending on the variety that you have.  I am no expert with hilling but 8 inches is enough for the potatoes in my opinion.

Good luck with the planting.

[LakeRat1]

The Vines on your potatoes  will turn & start to die back, they are finished, i use to grow potatoes in your parish, we always tried to plant the last od Jan. and we dug the last of May & first week of June, we grew them on 48 in. rows, before planting we put a 1000# of tripel 13 to the ac. under the row, i know of a case where a man could only put 500# per ac. we had to stop digging so he could get the labor to harvest his crop, there is no getting around it, it takes a lot of fetilizer to make big yields of potatoes,  you dont have to be  a big hurry to dig, Onions tops will start to lay down when they are getting ready to pull, keep your onions well watered, there is a lot of water in a onion, Garlic is a Long growing crop, the Old Timers said to plant when the kids start School in Sept, & Harvest when the get out of school in June

LakeRat1