what does it mean that potatoes are blooming?

[mopinko]

i haven't grown potatoes that many times. is there some significance to the blooms? are the vines going to start to die back now? are the spuds going to decline? get tough?
lots of mine are flowering now.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. flowering is normal, and doesn't hurt them a bit

the flowers will fade and eventually the plant will look like it's dying. that's harvest time.

[mopinko]

3. i have some that are curling up right now.

don't think they bloomed. started them indoors, and then kept them in the greenhouse for a while.
got a ton of plants, but serendipity spaced them out well. in fact, got one more batch to plant today.
just wondered if flowering was a sign that they were starting to shut down. meaning, time to stop hilling?

[mopinko]

2. also appreciate tips for storing potatoes.

i ended up with sooooo many potato plants. plan to make some french fries to freeze, and probably some dehydrated hash browns. but tips to just keep the spuds longer.
i need a root cellar.

[Kolesar]

6. Dig 'em up early and feast on "new" potatoes!

If you are anticipating a huge supply of tomatoes, dig them up when they are small and eat them. Hand dig around the base of the plant in a few weeks to see how large the potatoes are. If any are golf ball sized, it is time to dig them out. You can dig a few off the top of the plant and leave the rest for later.

Fresh potatoes are the best. They have a wonderful smell.

[Ruby Reason]

7. We do potatoes each year, the blue are our favorite.

But we couldn't find them so we picked a different variety. I have had some problems with storage, but found something that really seemed to work this last year.

I used the small wooden crates from the clementines we bought. They fit neatly inside brown paper bags. I cut one small side of the bag out except about a half inch on each edge. Then I put in a crate, filled it with potatoes, put another crate on top, filled it, etc. until I hit the top of the bag. I turned the open end of the bag against the wall in our coolest room and used the piece I cut out to cover the top of the whole thing.

They lasted very nicely through the whole winter. I only took time to break off any growing eyes each time I used some. We had harvested late Oct. or perhaps it was early Nov. and used the last of the potatoes for a meal in April. So the storage was fairly simple, cheap, and I didn't need to have a root cellar.

[Elad]

4. Yeah flowering is the sign that

vine production will stop, and tuber production will kick into high gear. You can stop hilling at that point. Once the vines die back you can harvest, but if the soil's dry, you can leave them in the ground for awhile. You want to let the soil dry out anyway as harvest approached to toughen the skins, which will improve storage. It will also make a slightly smaller (less water weight) but tastier potato.

If you want to store over the winter it's all about timing. If your vines dry out too soon (before September), storage over the winter is dicey. So if you want early potatoes, leave room in your garden for a large batch of taters started a bit later (for me this is around May 15), and the second batch will store better.

I'm not sure starting some indoors like you did is a good idea. I wouldn't be surprised if those plants don't produce as well.

[mopinko]

5. they started themselves.

they were just grocery store sprouty spuds. i let them go until the potato was pretty shriveled, just gave them a little water for a while, then planted them. the vines have been very strong.
i have had very iffy results from potatoes, but i think this year i will get it mostly down, as i have so many varieties, done so many ways. just when i thought i had too many, i was gifted a bunch more.
there is a video at my fb page about my spuds.