I planted 2 lbs of seed potatoes in early Sept and most didn’t sprout leaves and plants. I harvested a couple plants that were ready and found these seeds that look like they grew baby potatoes but probably weren’t getting enough nutrients since they didn’t have leaves.
Anyone experience this before?
by bladerrawr
3 Comments
Did you chit your potatoes before planting?
A seed potato with no leaves can be caused by a whole variety of issues like it being too hot, overly dry or wet soil, too much nitrogen, being planted too deep, bad seed.
I’m in Northern California and always chit my potatoes first before planting. Then you know you’ve got a good seed potato because you’re seeing growth sprout before you plant them.
Micro tubers. I’ve had this happen with potatoes accidentally stored in a garage for more than a year. Those micro tubers grew plants when planted the next spring.
Some environmental cue told the potato not to finish growing it’s sprouts, so each sprout tried to form tubers with the energy that they had managed to draw from the seed potato before it paused growth.
You can get them on growth above ground if a disease clogs the vascular tissue.
Sept? Seems suuuuper late unless you are aiming for indeterminate varieties like from the Andes.
My potatoes were chitted in Early feb and second batch was June. Bay Area FWIW.
By ‘plants that were ready’ this should be plants that have withered away and completely vanished IMO. Potatoes will draw back every bit of nutrient and put on weight at the very end of the plant’s cycle. Even then I usually give them 2-3wks more before digging them up.
All that set aside Potatoes like high P & K with lower N. I use langbeinite and super triple phosphate in granular form when prepping soil and they seem to like it. Where I am going to change things next year is my watering approach. They seem dislike drench and dry approaches and really do well with a drip irrigation setup.