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Harvesting home grown veg
Pal
Posts: 2,076 Forumite
I had a bag full of potatoes and some onions getting old and sprouting in the vegetable rack, so I decided to plant them in the garden and see what happened...
Roll forward four weeks and my onions are growing slowly but surely for now, and the potatoes are slowly taking over the garden (the world in next on their agenda).
At what point do I harvest the potatoes? Presumably you just pull them out of the ground, eat most of the potatoes but stick a couple back in so they continue growing?
What about onions? What does an onion plant actually look like?
Roll forward four weeks and my onions are growing slowly but surely for now, and the potatoes are slowly taking over the garden (the world in next on their agenda).
At what point do I harvest the potatoes? Presumably you just pull them out of the ground, eat most of the potatoes but stick a couple back in so they continue growing?
What about onions? What does an onion plant actually look like?
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Comments
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Taters, depends on whether you want new or old. The longer you leave the potatoes the bigger they'll be and the more you'll have. As long as you don't want tiny new potatoes you could wait until about a month after they start flowering. You should nip all the flowers off as soon as you see them. Late october is the usual harvest time depending on your locality and the weather for the year. You don't pull them up, you dig them up with a garden fork because a few will be quite deep.
Onions should have been planted with their tips just at or slightly above ground level. The leaves look like pretty much any leaves from a bulb do. Best harvest time is after the leaves have died back in late summer.Hi, I'm a Board Guide on the Old Style and the Consumer Rights boards which means I'm a volunteer to help the boards run smoothly and can move and merge posts there. Board guides are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an inappropriate or illegal post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. It is not part of my role to deal with reportable posts. Any views are mine and are not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.DTFAC: Y.T.D = £5.20 Apr £0.50
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squeaky wrote:Taters, depends on whether you want new or old. The longer you leave the potatoes the bigger they'll be and the more you'll have. As long as you don't want tiny new potatoes you could wait until about a month after they start flowering. You should nip all the flowers off as soon as you see them. Late october is the usual harvest time depending on your locality and the weather for the year. You don't pull them up, you dig them up with a garden fork because a few will be quite deep.
They flower? When? October? I was hoping to eat some after a few weeks!Onions should have been planted with their tips just at or slightly above ground level. The leaves look like pretty much any leaves from a bulb do. Best harvest time is after the leaves have died back in late summer.
Yeah I did that. So I have to wait for it to look dead before it is edible?
This home grown veg thing is difficult. I might just stick to parsley.0 -
A few weeks is pushing your luck! This year's been cooler than usual round my way so things are slower. You "might" have some small ones you can go at in a few weeks - I'd be inclined to lift just one plant. If the taters on that one are small they'll all be small. Flowering is usually late-ish in summer. Again it all depends on locale and weather and soil and rain...
Hi, I'm a Board Guide on the Old Style and the Consumer Rights boards which means I'm a volunteer to help the boards run smoothly and can move and merge posts there. Board guides are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an inappropriate or illegal post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. It is not part of my role to deal with reportable posts. Any views are mine and are not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.DTFAC: Y.T.D = £5.20 Apr £0.50
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Pal wrote:They flower? When? October? I was hoping to eat some after a few weeks!
This home grown veg thing is difficult. I might just stick to parsley.
Pal, you sound about as patient as me! I had all kinds sown on the windowsill for about four weeks, early this season, with no activity. I guessed my seed was ruined, so I gathered up the compost and used it for my tomato plants. Now I have a sill full of tomato plants with the odd sign of basil, purslane and chives popping up around it! I guess the weather warmed up! Or they didn't want to be outdone by tomatoes!
I have developed more patience in the garden though! The good thing about potatoes is that they don't need maintenance (other than as Squeaky said, pulling the flowers off to make sure the plant's energy gets concentrated on the developing tubers, not the flowers). So if you CAN try and forget about them :whistle: you'll have a nice surprise eventually!0 -
I think potatoes take about 12 weeks/3 months to get to full maturity - some can stay in the ground longer. If you are really impatient - dig one plant up after about eight weeks and see how they are doing - should be edible.0
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I'm just about to start harvesting my spinach, it's looking lovely and I'd rather eat it small. The carrot tops are so big I'm very tempted to tug one up to see what itlooks like underneath
Organised people are just too lazy to look for things
F U Fund currently at £2500 -
Carrots? Already?
I only planted carrot seeds a couple of weeks ago. No movement at all yet, apart from the herd of slugs slowly circling the seeded group. You can almost here them plotting.0 -
Carrots? Already?
I only planted carrot seeds a couple of weeks ago. No movement at all yet, apart from the herd of slugs slowly circling the seeded group. You can almost here them plotting.0 -
Umm...bad news on the onion front. If you've planted onions from the supermarket, they'll have grown from seed last year, and this year they will just want to flower...nice flowers though and good for bees etc.
In the unlikely event you planted shallots then you stand a good chance of them pushing up lots of green shoots, and eventually splitting in to more bulbs which will swell and splay out, leaving you with anything from 3 to 10 (approx) versions of the one you put in.
On the bright side if you've planted the potatoes in loose ground or you keep earthing them up (dragging the earth from either side of the row to make heaps) then you'll be able to scrabble around with your hand and see if you can pull out a few edible size tubers and leave the plant to grow. I agree with the others, you'll need to wait a while, although by scrabbling you could have new potatoes in June/July.
If you think you'd like to grow them again next season though, you should have a proper clear up after harvest and preferably get rid of the plants and any unused tubers as potatoes are very prone to disease.0 -
We've put some potatoes in this year and we were wondering when to dig them up. Very useful information.
As far as 'earthing' goes, my partner has been piling on compost to make sure that all the potatoes stay underground. Hopefully this will have the same effect and we can check a few out come July / August time to see what they are like.Baby Year 1: Oh dear...on the move
Lily contracted Strep B Meningitis Dec 2006 :eek: Now seemingly a normal little monster. :beer:
Love to my two angels that I will never forget.0
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