It’s to the point in the year when most people’s summer garden is slowing down. This means it’s time to start harvesting and preparing your bounty for winter storage. Some crops, including potatoes, are classic winter storage crops. These types of crops can simply be harvested and stored away for winter use with minimal preparation. However, you must know a few key steps to ensure that your potato crop lives out the winter until you have a new crop come in. Read on to learn how to harvest potatoes from your summer garden!

When To Harvest Potatoes
The time of year that you harvest your potatoes, of course, depends on a variety of factors. The month of harvest will depend on the variety planted, time to maturity, and time of year planted. But there are general guidelines you can follow to help you determine the best time to harvest your potatoes!
First, it’s important to check the maturity time of the variety you planted. In general, potatoes can take anywhere from 60-110 days to mature depending on the variety. So label your rows accordingly, and keep a log book documenting the month and week that you planted your potatoes. In general however, if you planted a fall harvest crop of potatoes in your summer garden, you can expect the harvest throughout the months of late September to Early October.
While it is important to pay attention to the maturity time of your variety, there is another sign you can look for when determining whether or not to harvest your potatoes. When the green foliage from your potato plants above ground dies, that is a good sign that your potatoes are ready to be dug. Wait until the foliage has turned brown and is falling over. Then you can be confident that it is time to dig those potatoes!

Best Weather To Harvest Potatoes
Even if all the other factors, mentioned in the previous section, align, you still need to keep a couple other things in mind when deciding when to harvest. The weather is a very important factor! Ideally, you will harvest your potatoes after you have had dry sunny weather for a few days.
It is best to avoid digging potatoes if the ground is recently wet from rain, or if it is a rainy day. You want your potatoes to be kept as dry as possible during the entire harvesting process. Moisture on storage crops like potatoes encourages mold and rotting.
So ideally, pick a few days in a row that will be warm and sunny to harvest your potatoes. Keep in mind that potatoes are just fine if left in the ground for a little while even if they are ready to harvest. It’s better to wait for good weather to harvest than to rush the harvest even if it’s ready.

How To Dig The Potatoes
Now that you know when to harvest your potatoes and what weather to be on the look out for, let’s get into the process of actually digging the potatoes. This process is actually quite simple. The main rule is – don’t run your shovel through the potatoes!
This is very important because of course any damaged potatoes can not be saved – or at least not saved for as long. You want to harvest as many perfect potatoes as you possibly can.
To do this, we like to dig a few inched outside of the actual row. Place your shovel a few inches outside of the row, dig down as deep as the shovel will extend, and gently turn over the soil. The potatoes should be in clusters in the soil that you overturned.
Gently remove the potatoes from the soil, and brush off as much excess dirt as you can. Gently transfer the potatoes to your harvest bucket and repeat until all your rows have been overturned.

How To Cure Your Potatoes
Now that all your potatoes are dug, you will need to “cure” them to make them longer lasting for winter storage. This is very simple to do. The vital factor is, once again, that it is a hot sunny day!
After you dig the potatoes, simply lay them out in the sunshine on a dry surface for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes, flip them over and leave them another 30 minutes. Once the hour of curing, they are ready for storage!

How To Store After Harvesting Potatoes
So what about storage? These are a storage crop so I don’t need anything special – right?! Well not exactly. But, storing potatoes is quite simple!
The first thing you need to do when storing your potatoes is to sort the good from the bad. Always pull out any potatoes that have any rotten spots or any blemishes. These potatoes should NOT be kept with your perfect potatoes. They may still be useful – but you would want to use them first.
After sorting the potatoes, store them in a cool, dry, dark location. It’s important to store your potatoes correctly so they don’t grow eyes prematurely! The ideal location is a root cellar, but there are many other alternatives! A cool basement or pantry floor is a great option. A crawl space works great or even a buried trash can!
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