Fall potato question

I planted potatoes for the first time in September. Actually I've been planting a few as I've gotten my seed sprouted so I guess you'd call them staggered. They were gorgeous until last week when the first killer frost got them. Now everything above ground is fried.

In the past, I've always planted them in early January and they keep coming with new leaves when the frost nips them. These aren't nipped, they're devastated. Can anyone tell me what will happen. Will they come back out and finish or will they rot in the ground?

Some of them may come back. Thats why we always get volunteers in the spring from last years potato patch. They won't be any earlier than late winter/early spring planted potatoes tho, so there is no advantage to fall planting and some disadvantages like rot, decreased plant vigor from having to to restart multiple times, compaction of soil and leaching from winter rains..

Well *&^%!!!. Oh the pain of learning a hard lesson! I wish I'd used the space for cabbage and broccoli. I guess I may as well start sprouting some more seed for January. I have to plant real early because it gets too hot too early to dawdle around. Thanks FarmerD.

twiggybuds, I'm curious. Aren't you in the southern part of your state? If so I wonder how low your temps go and how often to have a frost like that. If you only have "frost" to deal with, vs "freeze", I wonder if you can cover your spud plants with row cover (reemay) and have an ongoing crop.

F-dill, do you think potatoes are daylength sensitive like other root crops are? If they are I wonder if they would grow like Fall-planted onions and garlic, growing a root system and just holding on till Spring/early Summer.

I'd heard of folks sowing Fall spuds before (wouldn't do it here where I live) so I wonder where the cut-off point is.

Shoe

Horseshoe I live about 10 miles from the Gulf between Mobile and Biloxi. I don't know how cold it got because I'd become so disgusted with the weather liars I wasn't paying attention. I live with crazy weather. It is fairly common to get one or two nights in the high teens to mid 20s but many years its a single 27 degree event that ruins things. Every 10 years or so it goes down to single digits just to remind us that we can't have citrus orchards and to make sure we don't take Mother Nature for granted. The same day it might warm up to 70. Just totally erratic.

I got real cocky this year looking at all these threads and decided to try the spuds. Had I have known this was the real deal, I would have covered a few hills. It's just not worth all the hassle of trying to save everything every time the weather liars cry wolf which is usually the case. I started keeping a journal last April so maybe I'll get it all figured out someday.

If these don't stick their heads back up by mid January, I'll plant more right in with them.

Thanks, Twiggy. I know what you mean about the weather dudes/dudettes. (Today was supposed to be a high of 60 but we reached nearly 70; had I ignored them I woulda gone fishing for crappie!)

Weather is crazy no matter where you live. I almost admire it cus it is so unpredictable; it keeps us guessing!

As for your spuds, I was going to suggest a constant cover of Remay, not something you'd have to go put on/take off, according to the weather. (Been there, done that.)

I hope you continue with your weather record keeping. I have calendars that go back nearly 20 years with my records of highs and lows, precip amounts, etc. It's great entertainment to look at the previous year(s) on a given day and say, "wow, on this day in 1987 it was freezing!!" as I wear a T-shirt reading it.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to you, Twiggybuds. Love your posts!

Shoe

LOL the "weather liars". DH always calls them that.

I planted potatoes above ground in oak leaves last spring. Harvested in early summer and left the oak leaves to break down as it was too hot to move them to the compost at that time. After soaking rains from Ike in Sept, I had quite a few potato plants pop up. Apparently I had overlooked some potatoes and they sprouted.

After the tops were frozen on Nov 19th, I uncovered and got one last good mess of potatoes. I could tell the old from the new by skin color. I wondered if they would have continued to grow over winter without tops. I think probably not although the leaves would have insulated to keep the spuds from freezing. I'd have probably had more sprouts come spring.

A question that came to mind... I always heard when plants bloomed, you had potatoes. These never bloomed but I had taters up to 2 inches in diameter.

Irish potatoes are frost sensitive. They will usually come back if bitten once or twice. Each time they have to regenerate they use the stored energy in the seed tuber and it is not endless. If one has killing frost in November, they can look forward to quite a few more in December, January, and early February. Our planting date here for spring is targeted around Valentines day. In south Georgia ( Tifton) it is move up to late January. I don't do fall potatoes anymore as August -September are so hot and dry here. Use to in Virginia by planting in July and digging when frost killed the vines in late September-early October. Fall potatoes have to make before killing frost. Lots of modern Irish potato cultivars rarely ever bloom.

Valentines Day is the norm here too. Apparently they do make potatoes without blooming?

In Houston, I have planted in January and got great results. But we so rarely get frosts that I haven't had a big problem with dieback. You may want to look into some row cover to protect your plants from 28-32 degrees. If you are going below 28, then you might be planting too early and need to move back a week or two. :)