When do you know when your potatoes are ready to be eaten, im growing them in pots on the patio?

they are growing like mad and i have been earthing them up now one of the pots is up to the top and with large plants although no flowers. how long until they will be ready and how do i check?

When do you know when your potatoes are ready to be eaten, im growing them in pots on the patio?
You wait until the blooms go away. If you are unsure if they are ready then dig one up and check. I love potatoes out of the garden. (not out of a bag) :o)
Reply:When the tops start turning yellow and dying back, then they are ready, but they will stay ok in the ground for quite a while if you don't want them right away.
Reply:After they have flowerd
Reply:Some varieties are "earlies" and usually eaten as "new potatoes", providing smaller spuds. Late maincrop spuds growing in pots can be harvested after haulms fade. When they stop growing, you start eating !
Reply:Once they've flowered and when the greenery starts to die back
Reply:just after flowering before the flowers die. (I think)
Reply:Water potato plants freely, especially if grown in pots, bait the pots with slug pellets. On the second earthing-up feed with a high nitrogen fertiliser to encourage a good crop of tubers. Remove any flowers that form into seed pods. Lift early potato's when the haulms are still green, and the tubers are about the size of a hens egg and their skins are beginning to set. Second Early's and main-crop variety's should be lifted later , when the leaves are turning yellow, usually in late summer and early autumn. Be sure to harvest before frosts begin. When harvesting Early's, only lift enough for a couple of days eating.





Professional Gardner for 30 odd yrs and still going.