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Vegetable Gardening

Rot in fingerling potatoes

13 years ago

I just dug my potatoes and I'm not sure what's causing my fingerling potatoes to rot. There is no problem with the red potatoes.

Maybe 1/4 of the tubers are affected. Most of them have been reduced to empty skins. In a few, the larger ones, the flesh of the tuber is a whitish color, very soft, almost liquid, with no odor. This is happening in the ground. Soft rot, as I understand it, happens in storage.

Individual potato plants will have some firm healthy tubers and some rotten ones.

The weather this summer has been very abnormally wet and hot, but I trenched around the potato bed for drainage, which seemed to have worked well. I hadn't grown potatoes in this location previously.

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Comments (3)

oilpainter
13 years ago
They are rotting from too much moisture, not the location, unless that is a place that usually gets wetter than where you usually plant them. Different varieties like different levels of moisture. Some do best when it's wet and some when it's dry.

Red potatoes like more moisture than some other varieties.

We plant 3 varieties every year--kenabecs, superior and red chieftan. The red chieftan does best when it's wet. The superior when it's dry and the kenabec usually produce no matter the weather, but they are better in average weather conditions
User
Original Author
13 years ago
I certainly wish that the moisture is the only problem here, since fingerlings are my favorite potatoes. Except for getting a few new red potatoes earlier in the year, I wouldn't grow any other kind.
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Wow I have never had birds kill a potato. Even had cows walk over some when the neighbor let his gate open and they survived, course they didn't step on the main growing point just the vines. Is it possible the potato sprout coming up is where you planted one of the spuds you lost? I don't see how the current plant would be sprouting a foot away. But one of the other ones that still have a viable potato under the ground certainly could re-grow. I would hill around it and hope for the best, right now you have nothing to lose. With potatoes you want consistent watering, if you water in spurts, real wet, then real dry you will get odd shaped potatoes expecially fingerlings. They will stop growing when dry, then when they get wet will grow a new point in a different direction so instead of getting one nice long potato, you could get something with many fingers on it.
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keithondelmarva
13 years ago
soft rot will also occur while still in the ground. could also be pinkrot or leak..... rotate away from potatoes for 4-5 years in that spot

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