New Potatoes for Thanksgiving

By Alison Collin

While harvesting my Agata potato tubers on July 17, I came across a few good-sized ones that had been growing too close to the surface and as a consequence had turned green and had some pretty healthy looking sprouts developing.

My grandfather in the UK always prided himself on being able to provide new potatoes for Christmas dinner although how he achieved this has never been divulged, but since I cannot resist a challenge I went ahead and replanted four of them in my Bishop garden.

They were in my best soil and irrigated regularly.  The air temperatures were over 100 F daily, and the soil was warm.  I was expecting them to emerge almost immediately but they finally came through once the temperatures cooled in early September and then grew quite fast.

By October 10 we had had our first frost, but luckily I had covered the potatoes. As the daytime temperatures were still warm, the plants continued to grow.  However, the frost of November 25 was just too much for them even under the protection so I decided to see what they had produced, and was amazed to find a few very acceptable potatoes as shown above.  There were many marble-sized ones too, but they were obviously never going to develop.

I am tempted again next year using more substantial frost protection to see if these results can be replicated or even improved upon.