The soil is a mixture of equal parts organic humus and composted manure, a comparatively smaller amount of peat moss, and then a couple 1/2 cu ft bags of sand. Bed is 8x4. Everything was thrown in and mixed well last October. My wife and I planted some rows of seeds just to see what we could grow out of it even thought it was late into the season. As expected, very little growth. After about a month I covered it with black plastic until the start of this season. I remixed the top foot or so around and planted this year's seeds. The direct sown seedlings weren't growing well compared to the seedlings I bought at Lowe's, so I bought some composted manure (20% composted manure) and spread just enough around everything to barely cover the existing surface hoping that would help. Now I'm kinda stuck and am not sure what else to do, if anything.

Interesting. Maybe it is time. I planted them on Feb 11. I thought they would have to grow much longer than that amount of time in order for the potatoes to get big enough. I'm nervous that I'll start digging and just find teeny tiny potatoes down there. I guess I could try to dig down a little ways and see what I find. I just don't want to disturb the roots if it looks like it is not done growing. If the top pretty much dies off (like the one in the pics that is in really bad shape), is there any sense in leaving the potatoes in the soil in hopes of them getting bigger? Or is there no hope of that? The funny thing is, these potato plants are in my garden and I have been tending to them. I have another potato plant that is growing in my compost pile (I stopped turning it once the plant started taking off, just to see what it would do), and THAT plant is really taking off. Unfortunately that one was not buried very deeply, so I don't think there will be much to harvest from it. Potatoes don't tend to grow downwards from the seed potato, do they? I was under the assumption that that is why it is recommended to plant the seed potato very low, allow the plant to grow, cover it, allow it to grow more, cover, rinse and repeat. Do you guys think that fish fertilizer would help the yellowing ones come back to life? THANKS! -Michael- Austin, TX

Sounds like they've been in the ground for over 70 days? And it does sound like they're done. If you leave them in the ground the curing process will proceed (as long as you don't have voles or other under ground critters, in which case the *eating* process will proceed!) The skins will harden and they'll store better. I also find that potatoes will harden their skins once dug, as long as the vines were really done. So, my recommendation would be to leave them in until the vines are really dead. In the mean time, start eating a few to make sure there isn't any underground damage going on. Then get them good and dry for storage. YG's store so well, I'm sure you'll be able to keep them and not have to eat them all now. Why they made fruit, and why they died back before 90 days, I will leave to someone else to answer -- mine sometimes make fruit, too.

hey farmerboybill .... thank you for the insight ... i was wondering about those yellow leaves being a harbinger of *not good news* ... i have not gardened for, at least, eight years and have forgotten a lot, as well, my zone/location has changed ... anyway, the yellowing leaves could be from over-watering ... sometimes the tops of the potatoes droop from the heat and the first thing i want to do is: water .... water .... water ... and, i do! in the past couple of days, i've *strawed* the garden in the hope of keeping some of the moisture in the ground, so we shall see ... i live in the desert of washington state and it hardly rains in the summer ... lots of t-storms, but not so much actual rain ...... the potatoes are kinda newly planted ... we did not put the garden in until around 12 june, so they are almost ready to flower (checked at 7 this morning and still just buds) ... it's going to be hot today so they may just bloom ... again, thank you for your help ... darlene