Eating late crop poatoes

I've decided I want to seed a bit of my veg bed for grass - can I dig my late crop and eat them as new potatoes???

***SORRY - I meant potatoes in the subject line, not some weird new crop!!!!

 

I think they will be awful if dug now, but I 've never tried it.

They will be soft in side once cooked I believe, what we call watery.
A bit like new spuds dug before ripe, and I do believe spuds need to ripen.

Thats why I'm not keen on Jersey Royals, they dig then too early.

 

I have just dug up some new potatoes with the children for dinner. Lovely for them to grow, dig and then eat their own produce!

I dug up one of the lates and they are a red variety. But they were delicious. No difference between news and lates except they were marginally more 'potatoey' if that makes any sense at all - tinsy tiny bit waxier. I hope they won't go watery :(

 

That makes me wonder why there are early, second early, and main crop varieties.

 

I'm not sure - I am a beginner, although I'd like to think that I am learning fast.

Could it be something to do with optimum performance? For example the early crop being quick developing and best eaten soon. The late crop being a variety that will keep and store well? I'm just having a guess.

 

I found this on some kind of boffin website :hehe: which indicates that it is mainly to do with storage. I could be wrong though!!!!

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+1]Maturity Indices[/SIZE] [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif][SIZE=-1] Immature potatoes, generally harvested in spring or early summer, have a thin, poorly developed periderm, or skin. Irrigation and planting bed management, along with the option of vine-killing treatments, manage harvest "maturity". Harvest preparedness generally begins once tubers have reached a desirable size for the variety or market. Immature potatoes are easily bruised and "skinning" leads to shriveling or decays. They are very perishable relative to late-crop potatoes and are only stored for short periods. Curing potatoes for 8 days at 15°C (59°F) and 95% RH will allow extended storage of up to 5 months at 4°C (39°F) and 95 to 98% RH, depending on variety. More typically, early-crop potatoes are harvested, cooled to 15°C (59°F), treated with a sprouting inhibitor, packed and shipped in a short period of time (i.e. 1 to 5 days). [/SIZE][/FONT]

 

PS The main crop were bigger and had more potatoes on them than my new!

Confused?? I am!!!

 

"I think they will be awful if dug now, but I 've never tried it."

They will be fine, but small. However, they will not keep for very long - to keep they need to have matured fully whilst in the ground.

"A bit like new spuds dug before ripe, and I do believe spuds need to ripen."

We start digging our new potatoes at 9 weeks (normally ready at 12 weeks) and they taste just as good, you just don't get very many. For me the purpose of New Potatoes is taste, not crop yield

"Thats why I'm not keen on Jersey Royals, they dig then too early"

I don't see it makes any difference, they dig them early so that the tubers are small.

"That makes me wonder why there are early, second early, and main crop varieties"

Its a poor choice of name, I agree. Like the "Fast Lane" on the motorway :(

Early, Second early, and Main crop have different times from planting to being ready, that's it! Only the main crop, with its longer growing season, will store well.

The ones that grow longer will produce a larger yield, generally speaking, so if yield is your only requirement then Main Crop makes sense. But if you want potatoes very early in the year you need a speedy variety with a short growing season - and thus plant a First Early variety. (we started harvesting ours in the first week of June, but an even earlier crop is possible by planting in containers in Conservatory / Cold greenhouse)

 

Ok, so when do you determine a potato as "ready".

Once the flower dies?
After its grown for a certain period?
Or as with the supermarkets, when they are big enough to eat.

All I know is that if you cook spuds that are dug too early they are soft inside and tasteless, leave them another week and they become firmer.

Amount of water seems to have an effect, in dry years the spuds ripen earlier, in wet years they grow lush and take longer.

The commercial growers will stick to a timetable regardless.
Surely the reason for growing your own is to dig at the best time, not as laid out in some time table

 

Yes I agree. But I think the point is that we each decide our own 'best time' depending on our growing circumstance (when planted, weather etc etc) and what we want them for eg eating asap, or storing.

I wanted to know if they would be useable if I dug them now, which they totally are! They really were just the same as new potatoes. Don't forget though that I have only decided to dig the few 'main crop' that are planted in that position because I want to seed that area. I would happily have left them longer if I didn't need the space.

It has tought me a lot about potatoes though!!! If you were only going to plant one type you could easily go for main crop and just eat some early! :thmb:

 

"Ok, so when do you determine a potato as "ready"."

If you want maximum crop yeild then harvest when the tops start to dies down. If you want to store the tubers then harvest even later than that - to give time for the skins to harden.

"Once the flower dies?"

Its a good approximate indicator, but sometimes they don't flower (for example: I have read that modern varieties are bred not to flower much/at all as flowering takes energy away from the producing the crop) and my Pink Fir Apple (Main Crop) have been in flower for a coulpe of weeks but they are tiny and nowhere near ready

"After its grown for a certain period?"

I think that is a good metric. I grow enough that I can afford to sacrifice one to an early "Dig one up and have a look" experiment, but if you soil is lovely and fluffy you could stick your hand in and see what size they are.

"All I know is that if you cook spuds that are dug too early they are soft inside and tasteless, leave them another week and they become firmer."

That's not been my experience with the Early variates I have grown. Leave them to "term" and they are floury, fall to bits when cooked, and the special "new potato" taste is gone :(

"Amount of water seems to have an effect, in dry years the spuds ripen earlier, in wet years they grow lush and take longer."

Yes, watering is important. Most of the "bulking up" takes place in the last week or two (that's for earlies - bulking up is over a longer period for Mains) and one really heavy watering during that time makes a huge difference.

Growing in Manure adds flavour too IMHO. :thumb:

"The commercial growers will stick to a timetable regardless."

Commercial growers are governed by weather too, but they water at just-the-right-time - its not a question, for them, of a) being at home and b) having enough time to spare

Modern varieties (particularly seeds that are described as F1 - i.e. not Potatoes specifically) are bred to all mature at the same time - to make it easier for farmers to take a harvest at just a single time. Of course, for amateur gardens, that doesn't bode well,. We need to stretch out our harvest over as long a time as possible, otherwise to get successional crops we have to sow a couple of seeds every date :hehe:

"Surely the reason for growing your own is to dig at the best time, not as laid out in some time
table"

Well for me its a bit of both. I want fresh veg on the table every day that I can. To do that I have to sow successionally, and that takes a lot of time, planning and experience. I grow everything in pots, and sow 3 or 4 lettuce at a time, every week (Its a pathetically small number to grow as a "batch"). Sowing a row means you have millions of lettuces over a harvest period of maybe just a couple of weeks ... and then nothing. Well, not nothing, you then have a freezer full of Lettuce soup for the next N months!

 

Spot on Kristen and all. To "stretch the season" it works best to start picking a few for the pot as soon as possible, even at the expense of yield. That way you maximise the amount eaten at its freshest, and because you are harvesting while they mature you get built in variety. Soil to plate in a few hours really does taste better. Makes much more sense than waiting for the biggest crop, harvesting all in one go, then eating them as they slowly lose condition in storage.
I reckon the same applies to onions. Start pulling a few as needed when they are still "in the green" and you get a fantastic freshness. Wait for the biggest bulbs and most will be indistinguishable from shop-bought by the time you use them.