Awesome Potato Harvest!

This video captures the last of my spring potato harvest. It is a long video, but I think there are plenty of tidbits that can be gleaned from my experience. I felt like I had a very nice spring potato crop. My plan to get it planted VERY early paid off. I know it’s a gamble to dare the weather, but this year I cashed in.
As always, I learned quite a few things from my potato crop this spring. One of the biggest lessons I’m taking away is that I have to find a way to support the foliage of my potato plants. I’m sure this will involve some trial and error, but I’m confident I will find something effective.
I am also honing in on what I feel are the best producing potatoes for my zone (9a) and my region of the country (SE Texas, just NW of Houston). Red Norland will always be a staple in my garden. It produces well in both containers and raised beds. Additionally, they are great table fare.
I was extremely pleased with the Yukon Gold I grew in my raised bed. The store bought potatoes I planted grew potatoes, but nothing like the certified seed potatoes produced. I did not plant any certified seed Yukon Gold in containers so I’m not sure how they perform there.
The Carola I grew were very prolific but I learned an important lesson with them. They don’t seem to like small containers - translate 5 gallon buckets. Larger tubers were grown in bigger containers. I would be curious to know how they perform in a raised bed. They are very tasty on the plate though!
Of all the new varieties I tried this spring, I was most surprised by Baltic Rose. They were VERY prolific and produced very attractive potatoes. Again, given how many tubers were produced, I would be curious to know how they would produce planted in a raised bed. I can’t wait to include these with a meal - which will happen this weekend!
If there was a potato I felt like underperformed, it was the Caribe. Maybe I had set my expectations too high. Maybe I did something wrong. Maybe it performed just as it is supposed to. I had the impression it was going to be a better producer. I still have yet to try this one with a meal. I will find a way to get them on a plate this next week.
This was my best harvest in total for potatoes. I tallied over 110 lbs of potatoes from one 4’x8’ raised bed and 18 containers of various sizes. A few of the containers were mostly busts, like the store bought Yukon Gold I planted. They produced a little, but nothing when compared to the organic seed potato from Wood Prairie Family Farms. Towards the end of this video I predicted that I had harvested 25-30 lbs of potatoes during the final harvest I videoed. Good grief did I miss the mark! In this video I actually harvested almost 56 lbs of potatoes! I’m going to throw this out there now…my goal for next spring is 150 lbs!
Let me know in the comments if you planted potatoes in your garden this season. I love hearing about what others are doing. Share your zone and which varieties of potatoes you grew/are growing. I also like discovering new varieties I may want to try myself!
Here is the link to Wood Prairie Family Farms we’re I get my certified organic seed potatoes:
www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=D...
Please note, I have NO affiliation with Wood Prairie Family Farms. I have just been pleased with their product and their service.

[@saraschoen9818]

It’s also too hot here and no basement to store, so last year I made HUGE batches of mashed potatoes with plenty of butter and heavy cream, and froze them in meal size tupperwares with Saran Wrap pressed on top under the lid. The high fat protects the potatoes from getting a weird texture. Just used the last one the other day!

[@greyghostgardening5353]

That is my plan for tomorrow. I am also going to par boil french fries and freeze them. I already have the supplies to make an enormous amount of mashed potatoes.

[@saraschoen9818]

Good luck! I’ll say when you first thaw them you’ll think they’re too watery and odd. But just reheat slowly in pot or microwave for a while and they’ll thicken back up!

[@fletchybabe6172]

​@@greyghostgardening5353 good idea, try putting herbs like mint in before freezing too😉😁🌱☀️

[@nowirehangers2815]

That’s some lovely looking soil

[@nahnisjourney1406]

Beautiful potatoes

[@Pinkpumpkingardener]

❤❤❤ Can’t wait until my first tator harvest ☺️ so excited ❤

[@greyghostgardening5353]

@@Pinkpumpkingardener what zone are you in? My potatoes were all harvested over a month ago!

[@Pinkpumpkingardener]

@@greyghostgardening5353 I started later than I’d like 😬 😩 but I’m in northern va It’s been so dang hot 🥵

[@greyghostgardening5353]

@@Pinkpumpkingardener yeah, been hot here too, now we’ve got this dang hurricane to deal with. Should mostly be a rain event, but it’s hitting right in the middle of fig season! Oh well, I’m sure by August we’ll be begging for rain!

[@greenbank4800]

Love the video and the handsome Wei. Our Wei girl protects me from little lizards and possible frog attacks in the vege garden. She does occaisionally disappear with self serve harvested sweet potatoes, snow peas and any cherry tomatoes in reach. Its late Spring down under and our Grey Ghost has discovered the pole beans. We dont mind, we just plant an extra couple for her to snack on. Funny, the first time she tried a cucumber, spat it out, not to her liking at all, so we plant them in easy to get at spots and tuck things we want safe behind them. Best dogs ever.

[@pamelabrown9800]

Great harvest🥔

[@SoxInTheGarden]

OMGOSH, you had an AMAZING haul! 😍🌱🥰 You just reminded me I got four containers I still need to harvest. 😂 We just had our first frost today.

[@sf55514]

I liked that you introduced your dog. I'd say you have a pile of potatoes!

[@sarah_farm]

seeing you be upset about the noodles but then immediately going to improve them is amazing and inspiring to me! i would've given up but you didn't and i really respect that! I love your videos. And it's an honor to have you visit our channel, we can discuss more about our experiences in harvesting and building farms.

[@janej813]

I just found your channel, and enjoyed watching you gather your harvest. What I could see of your garden, is absolutely, beautiful. Unfortunately, I have to watch on an old tablet, and the sound is too low, and the music, although is nice, Makes it harder, to hear you speak. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it enough to subscribe. Thank You, for sharing.

[@stevem6949]

You got a good harvest,enjoyed the video. Just Subbed.

[@rizesgardening]

Good harvest 🥔

[@garyweaver317]

Potato plants have the ability to grow roots anywhere soil touches the stems. Stems will grow more potatoes every where stems grow more roots. Stems will grow new potatoes at 2 or 3 or 4 different levels it depends on how high up you hill the plants. I usually get 1 lb of new potatoes from each level. If I don't hill potatoes I only get 1 lb of new potatoes from 1 plant. If I hill soil up high enough to have 4 levels I get 4 lbs of new potatoes from each plant. If a seed potato has 4 eyes and grows 4 plants with 4 levels it will grow 4x4=16 lbs of new potatoes. Tall 12" hills are a space saver more new potatoes per square foot of garden space. I sometimes plant like you do 100 plants produce 100 lbs of new potatoes, easy to plant, easy to harvest. 25 hilled plants produce 100 lbs of new potatoes.

[@greyghostgardening5353]

What variety of potato do you plant?

[@garyweaver317]

@@greyghostgardening5353 I have very good luck with Red Pontiac, Kennebec, Red Norland.

[@donbeebe2110]

Nice harvest! Also in Houston. Last year I got a decent size cardboard box that fit perfect inside my garage fridge, ran some cardboard through my paper shedder and lined the bottom of the box with about an inch or so and layered the potatoes on top, then more shredded cardboard and more taters. Closed the top and kept them in the fridge. They lasted us all the way till Christmas when we used them all up. They were all in great shape. My harvest was about half the size of yours, so it might take up a bit more space. Another thing I did was plant some of the potatoes later in the year and harvested them before frost. It didn't produce a great harvest but it did provide a decent enough harvest to use as seed potatoes this year. Thanks for the videos, Keep them coming.

[@greyghostgardening5353]

Our “garage fridge” died earlier this year and we’ve yet to replace it☹️. But you solution sounds like it worked perfectly! I plan to par boil a lot of the harvest and freeze them after vacuum packing. Of course a lot will go to my parents and my in-laws.

[@Christian-jx3nx]

If you want bigger taters in the South, Purple Viking seed potatoes and Russet and red grocery store potatoes yielded big and more inplastic pots and grow bags for me. I’m in Memphis. My inground Purple Viking not ready yet. Used 10-15 gallon containers alot of compost and leaf mulch, fertilizers and ALOT of water! Got 7-10 per potato seed.

[@Ms.Byrd68]

May also be certain times of the year when 'grocery brought' potatoes DON'T sprout for you so you have to know your grocery cycles and about SEASONAL growing and HOW FAR your store is shipping IN it's produce. But for those who CAN'T buy 'Seed Potatoes', many Gardeners/Homesteaders, both here in the US and abroad have proven *_you can_* grow potatoes from Store brought stock. But for all the reasons he mentioned and most of those guys would testify, if you can get a good ORGANIC supplier, that's best.

[@Tulip879]

I grow store bought potatoes as I don't get seed potatoes.

[@peggystephens4703]

Canning potatoes are great

[@cheryldevor5573]

It looks great . But I’ve seen people Poke holes in their containers they say it gives it air and it helps them grow better and bigger and I’ve seen it they were really big potatoes too

[@dimboolabladeworks7927]

G'day from Australia your carola (sp?) spuds are heavy feeders ( they need a lot of food , more than the average ) and wont grow unless you have a LOT of nutrients , cow manure works good horse or sheep works well if you add some ashes and super phosphate 15% moo poo added to soils that are nutrient rich works well , we grow exclusively in 10 gallon buckets here as we are in the little desert region of Australia and these are a lovely spud if you keep the food up to them , feed through the season as well to get the best yield, best of luck next season ! cheers from the outback

[@greyghostgardening5353]

Many thanks for the info on the Carola!

[@meloniehamilton8627]

Great video! I live in Minnesota so I won't be harvesting until late summer. I dehydrated a large portion of my harvest and used them for scalloped potatoes in the Winter because they don't over winter long .Some of the smaller potatoes I cut into cubes and dehydrated and used in soups!

[@fletchybabe6172]

Lovely harvest Scott, i noticed some of your tubs were only half full and had less/smaller, that proves your theory of more space more/bigger potatoes. I never buy seed potatoes always store bought organic potatoes and they always come good. Looking forward to seeing what else you're growing 😁🌱☀️

[@Blahshog]

Nice haul! Here in the U.K. my potatoes won't be ready for a good while yet. I also grow in containers with varying results depending on the seed potato variety. One thing that I have learnt over the years is using a pelleted organic chicken fertiliser works really well as far as feeding the growing tubers, I've had some surprisingly good results with it. Nice video, happy gardening.

[@greyghostgardening5353]

I have never tried pelleted chicken fertilizer. I will certainly look into that! What part of the U.K. Do you hail from?

[@Blahshog]

@@greyghostgardening5353 Hi, I'm from the East Midlands, namely Northamptonshire. We have pleasant summers that range anywhere between 23 deg c and last years high was around 41 deg c, quite a range of temperatures! In F, that's about 72 deg- 106 deg! Our winters are usually very wet!

[@peggystephens4703]

Might want to try a tarp next time

[@artport7]

I can only give you one tip from experience... WATER WATER WATER... especially the ones in grow bags.. when potatoes reach the stage where the tubers are forming, they need tons of water... but they also need a well draining medium.. If you give plenty of water, they will make much larger tubers.

[@mixalispatsourakis899]

Γειά σας! Η εμπειρία μου λέει ότι τα καλάθια χωρίς πάτο παράγουν καλύτερα ! Αν θέλετε δοκιμάστε!

[@kristuskan3117]

really enjoy your videos! New subscriber :)

[@greyghostgardening5353]

Thanks for watching and a huge thank you for subscribing! Where do you garden?

[@kristuskan3117]

@@greyghostgardening5353 I am in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. drought, and now cold and rain makes for an unhappy garden

[@nahnisjourney1406]

New subscriber here. Loved the video content! I dump my potatoes out onto tarps when i grow them in containers. What soil do you use? Thank you for sharing your wonderful gardening journey. 🥬🍃🌾🌿🥗

[@greyghostgardening5353]

I make my own soil. Equal parts organic potting soil, organic compost, and peat. I also add a big dose of bone meal at planting and a 2nd time about 1/2 way through the expected grow period. Thanks for watching!

[@Igardenbecauseican]

Wow, how awesome! I also purchase from "Wood Prairie Farm," and I hope I have as good a harvest as yours. I also chose Yukon Gold and Caribe. Have not harvested them yet, a different zone, and a lot of rain. What was the starting weight of your potatoes, I purchase 2 1/2 pounds of each variety of potato.

[@greyghostgardening5353]

We had a lot of rain this spring too. Initially I was really worried about it being too much, but in the end, I think it was a good thing. What really got my potatoes was severe wind associated with some of the fronts that came through. Did you plant in the ground, raised beds, or containers? Have you ever grown the Caribe before? Hope you have a GREAT harvest!!!

[@greyghostgardening5353]

I had 2.5 lb bags of all the varieties EXCEPT the Red Norland and Baltic Rose. I had a 1 lb bag of Baltic Rose. For some reason I ended up with a 5 lb bag. But I have about half of those to a neighbor. So all told I planted about 11 lbs of seed.

[@Igardenbecauseican]

@@greyghostgardening5353 Thanks for replying to my comment. I planted potatoes in both grow bags (10 gal. with 2 potatoes in each) as well as directly into the ground ( 5 rows 18' long ). I have grown blue potatoes before and really like the taste, and the health benefit is a plus. Instead of using garden containers, I use strawbales, for me, there are a lot of plusses to use strawbales. While I have not planted potatoes in strawbales I have planted sweet potatoes in them. Last year one sweet potato weighed almost 2 1/2 pounds.

[@garyplank9756]

How often do you water , and what fertilizer

[@greyghostgardening5353]

Watering just depends on the container. Sounds silly, but I use the finger test. If I stick my finger into the soil up to the first knuckle and I can’t feel moisture, I water until water runs out of the drain holes at the bottom of my container. With my raised bed, I went two knuckles deep. I completely stopped watering about a week before harvest. As far as fertilizer goes, this year was a little screwy because we had a VERY wet spring. At planting, a heavy dose of organic bone meal (a handful in 5 gallon bucket and up to a cup in my big protein tubs), an equal dose of an organic general purpose garden fertilizer (I used Dr. Earth this season), a tiny dash of blood meal, and a good dose of worm castings. When plants were about 6-8” tall I sprinkled another round of bone meal and scratched it in. About the beginning of April I applied Miracle Grow Organics Blooms (Black bottle with purple/violet colored top). Normally, I would not have done this but we got a 6” rain and then a week later a 4” rain. I was talking with several other “tater heads” and we were expressing our concerns about nutrients leeching out of the soil from all the rain. So I chose that particular Miracle Grow because it was high in the P and K in the N-P-K ratio. If you ever do have to fertilize late, avoid Nitrogen as much as you can. Hope this helps!

[@user-os3ir5sy6u]

Can I grow Potato all year long if Yes what's best time of the year I can grow Potato?

[@greyghostgardening5353]

The short answer is no, not all year long - unless you have a climate controlled environment. The plant (green) part can’t tolerate freezes and once temps get above 90 degrees, the tubers won’t swell up very well to make potatoes - in my experience. I grow most of my potatoes in late winter (planting) thru the spring. I will plant some potatoes for my fall garden at the end of July/beginning of August. But I live in Zone 9a and we typically don’t get freezing weather until end of November. So where you live plays a huge factor in when you plant and when you will harvest. Does that help?