Potato question =)?

Question

i had a old potato in my kitchen that was growing roots, i now know i should have waited later to plant it so it had some stronger roots... will it be ok that i planted it with just the little roots on tho? i put it in a old tire my fiance got from work.. the leaves are really big and tall so i put more dirt in there in hope it would give more room for spuds to grow.. did i do the right thing? oh also someone said wait until the green dies back to dig them up but another site said cut the top off so spuds have time to harden.. there just shop brought baking potato's so any info would be good =)

thats if you havent fallen alseep by now.. thanks

Answer 1

You have done absolutely right. Since it was a baking potato it will be a main cropper which takes a little more time to reach maturity.  Keep filling up the tyre with earth and keep it all from getting dry.  It may or not flower (not all potatoes do).  Main crop potatoes usually take about 5 months.  What you can do is have a little look around under the soil and see if there are any size-able tatties there.  You don't say when you planted this.   If you want to you can pick one you find very carefully off and leave all the rest to keep on growing, then you'll get an idea how far on the plant is.

(People don't let a big shoot grow on their potato plants before planting, just a few little stubby shoots.  In this way it doesn't get damaged when planting out.)

Don't cut the green tops off.  They will die down when they're ready to - but it's up to you when you begin to see how it's doing.

Good harvesting!