What to Do When Your Potatoes Flower: How to Maximize Spud Production and Avoid Poisonous Fruit 

Cutting the flowers won't help potato production in any meaningful way. 60 yrs ago my Irish grandfather showed me the right way to deal with a flowering potato plant, that was shown to him by his grandfather in the 1890's. The process is called "stepping down" the entire plant. Simply step on the plant and crush the main stalk near the ground, being careful not to sever the stalk. This causes the plant to stop sending nutrients above ground and causes the nutrients to migrate to the potatoes. The number of potatoes remains about the same, but the potatoes themselves get about 20-50% larger than they would without stepping them down. This is a tried and true method that has been used in Ireland for centuries.

Best line ever from my neighbor… “What are those pretty pink flowers in your garden?” “They’re potatoes,” I replied. She responds, “Where’s the potato part?”

Would be interested to see a side by side test but in all my years and 1000's of pounds of spuds grown, I have always left the flowers. Some will form seeds but that is a small percentage so there is little if any spud yield loss... IMO.

Awesome, I've just cut all my tomato flowers off too hoping for loads this year

I’m a new subscriber, retired 5 years, I enjoy flower plants and now I want to start growing Vegetables, so I’m here for the Education…So how can my wife and I start a good eating vegetable

Hello, thank you for the great information. This will be my first year growing potatoes.

Thank you for this interesting content. My potato plants are growing in cardboard cartons for the first time and are doing very well. I will watch for blossoms and prune them out.

Thank u for the info I always thought i should cut the flowers off.

This was a very helpful I am pruning the flowers right now after watching your video! Thanks 👍

Just have a conversation with your kids about your plants. I educate my son on everything I'm doing in the garden so he knows all of this stuff too. I don't avoid it, I prevent it.

Hello Thanks for the info This is my first year growing potatoes 😁

i would if different varieties of potato produced more than one color 🥔 and thanks for the video, it looks like my potato is getting ready to make little flowers so now i know what to do.

I grow red potatoes all around different times of the year and they pretty much grow 9 months of the year in different places but recently I planted some and I just had my flowers so I’m interested to see what you have to say about the flowers. I’ve had some beautiful flowers on mine just recently, but I just left them alone. I have no small children around.

good info. will prune my potatoes.

Thanks for the tip!

A very attractive plant , Spuds look good too😄

Thanks for the warning. My neighbor is 2 years old and curious person. I guess I'll crop the plant.

Thanks for the info . I was looking into this.

Seed can also plant after freezing

A store of potato seeds may come in handy someday. If store correctly they will stay up to five years.

How long does it take for potato’s to grow? How do you know when to harvest .?

Hello there subscribing now!!!

I just did a shorts video today on my potato plants that are growing and it was about flowers. Thank you so much for this video. 😁🌱🌿💚Now I know. New subscriber here also. Happy Growing🌱🌿💚

Liked ur vid, jist saw and subscribed!.....but. they didnt evolve, GOD CREATED them to grow this way for us !!

Hey do you have any knowledge about clovers

Why would you compost the flowers if they are poisonous?

A lot of good comments. As to children eating the flowers??....If your kids are eating everything they see, well, protecting them from tater flowers probably won't prolong their childhood very long. Especially till they see that warty mushroom. I assume it's fine if they just get a case of diarrhea. Are they going to eat enough to kill them? They probably will have bigger problems to deal with than potato flowers. So for those kids maybe you need a different video. A potato needs several inches of soil over it to prevent the sun UV from turning it green and very nasty tasting. That is why we hill the plant. Planting deep in a trench works fine if you have a long growing season and don't mind waiting longer for it to mature. I assume commercial potatoes are sown deep enough because I can't imagine hilling acres of them. Some varieties will develop a hollow core (regardless of moisture levels) if they are allowed to get too big. Seed potatoes are certified to guarantee they are free of scab mold. Once you get this in your soil it's there forever. Starting plants from seed seems like it would prevent developing scabs in your soil? It is possible to discover that special variety that tastes better than steak. Maybe it is just a match for your unique soil, I don't know, but we found one like this last year, and then never saw it available for sale again this year.

Hi

I typically don’t subscribe to a channel that doesn’t respond to the comments

5 mins in guys before this tool gives us the info advertised...

I am married - however, you are beautiful - !!

Potadoh

Interesting to learn that some folks prune potato blossoms. Always something new to learn. I follow the traditional path - leave the flowers, and take them as a sign that there are edible tubers down there - take a few, but don't pull the plant hill it (heap soil around the stem, feel free to bury some leaves. And just tell your children, those are not edible flowers. If they're too young to hear and understand, they're too young to be left roaming the veggie patch unsupervised. Happy growing to all.

Prune potato flowers? How ridiculous!!!! 60 years of growing potatoes and have NEVER cut the flowers off. The stupid ideas the younger generations come up with bogles my mind!

I began by running my own trial this year sowing four rows of Charlotte potatoes at my allotment. They were sown side by side, at the same time, with similar manuring, fertilising and watering quantities. In essence I did my very best to ensure that they all experienced the same environmental factors. Having so far harvested four plants that went to flower and four others that were prevented from doing so, I can give you the following results: Flowers removed: 37 potatoes weighing 3.83kg Flowers left on: 40 potatoes weighing 4.12kg

A friend made an experiment. One raised bed with potatoes with flowers. One without- he cut them. A surprise came to light in autumn. The uncut potatoes were only a few per plant- but much bigger potatoes. The cut plants had many potatoes but much smaller. The potatoe plants have to cure the wounds and are stressed. Potatoe illnesses can go into the wounds. I would never do the cut. (Sorry for my bad language.) Greetings from a european gardener!

Gee when I was growing up with potato fields everywhere and without supervision, neither me or my siblings or any of our friends or anyone I know ever tried to eat flowers off of anything. It’s too bad people don’t teach children what to and what not to eat rather than just protecting them without a lesson on the possible danger. Can’t protect kids from everything so we might as well teach them.

This one takes a long time to get to the point and really provides no evidence of how much production is affected by pruning off the flowers. A better video would document some test plot trials.

Tomato leaves are poisonous too. Don't bother picking off flowers, just teach kids not to eat anything in garden without asking. Pruning the flowers will do nothing, just cause you more work. At least that is my opinion, growing for past 50 years.

Your potatoes are flowering? Thats awesome now collect the pollen from the anthers and if you have 2 or more varieties take the pollen from 1 and put it on the stamen other and vice versa do this because many potatoes are self sterile and will need another type of potato to fertilize. Remember that all of your potatoes of 1 variety say Red Norland for instance are actually part of the same plant in a real sense they are actually part of the original potato they came from and so if the potato is self sterile it will not fertilize any potatoes of the same variety you must cross pollinate. With any luck a berry will begin to form that looks much like a green tomato but don't eat it as its poisonous much like nightshade which is in the same family as btw are tomatoes and peppers. This berry will remain green but when its ripe it will soften. extract the seeds and save them for spring plant them early indoors as it takes potatoes considerably longer to grow from true seed than from the tuber. When time for harvest comes though you will have many new and different varieties of potatoes it is also very interesting to see the different growing habits of many of these true seed plants some will send out stolens and grow more potatoes from them some will grow very loooong vines also variations in taste and amount of starch thickness of skin color of skin color of the potatoes themselves there is a great deal of variety to be found. Maybe you will find the next greatest cultivar of potato ever grow it on year after year from seed potatoes or even get a new cultivar on the market. The results are always interesting when growing from true seed.

No. Pruning the flowers will not increase tuber production. What's more, letting those flowers produce fruit will produce actual potato seed inside, and those seeds will be of a variety that has never been grown before. I'm four years into a variety that only I have, produced from seeds from berries. And you can do that too by letting those flowers get fertilized and grow into berries with seeds. :)

If you leave flowers on it encourages pollinators to be around.

I've never done anything with my potato flowers. I always get abundant potatoes.

Not all potato varieties produce flowers, it's got nothing to do with fertiliser or temperature, those berries are not fruit, they are seed pods, inside are dozens of true potato seeds, the flowers and seed pods have no effects on tuber production.

Lol so many yt garden channels are full of weird bad advice

4:54 minutes in and the point arrives. Opening Body Close. Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them. 3 minutes from start to finish. Give it a go. Toastmasters.

Another commenter said to “step down” (without breaking) the stalk and that is how it’s done in Ireland. Worth a try

Too much talking

Nonsense, totally unnecessary, especially for 2 spud plants in a flower border.

Leave the flowers on the plants, to do their part. There is a lot of science that goes into a great explanation. I'm not very Science(Y), so I will say to try planting half the potatoes with flowers and other half without. Cutting the flowers did yield small potatoes in my garden. The Potato plant in its natural state did a great job. Bonus? No more buying seed potatoes. Have a great Day!

I didn't know that sweet potatoes bloomed. I was fascinated to know why. Thanks for the information.

That's interesting. I've never taken the flowers off. I've waited for them to die and then I would harvest. I'll give this a try on half my potatoes and see what the difference is

Stop talking so much get to the point, stop asking for subscribers get to the point faster and you will get them,🤔🤔👍👏👏👏🇺🇲🇺🇲

what's with all the fear of kids or animals eating the fruits? They taste horrible. Nothing will eat them. Also, I would like to have a little data on heading the flowers resulting in greater yield. Never heard of this and I've been growing potatoes a long time. I have over 800 plants out this year.

How would you like it if I cut your flowers and fruit off. Leave them be. Then grab them once they are fruit. Plant them and you might get a new variety of potato you have never had.

I'm from the south and growing up, my dad truck patched. We always had acres of potatoes. Dad always said that's one way to know when to dig them up is when the flowers start becoming spent. We had truckloads of taters every year. If we wanted new potatoes, we dug a few rows up early.

Removing flowers Doesn’t make any difference in potato quantity or size. Grow them in an area with the most Sun which Will collect more energy for photosynthesis to produce more and bigger potatoes. Mulching the soil to maintain moisture consistency is also a big factor to grow potatoes.

Never ever cut flowers of my spuds … 🇬🇧

Those poisonous fruit produce the best potatoe seeds that last for years, they make perfect potatoes, the seeds are valuable as they last for years, i have used these seedswith anazing results, the disease rate on these plants is much smaller than using the eyes.

Wow, jump to the 3-4 minute mark. Very wordy video.

so THAT's what it was... i could have sworn i had a potato planted but it fruited up top and i couldn't figure out what fruit it was. was like a cherry tomato crossed with plum. sat in my fridge while i was waiting to figure out what it was. ended up tossing it with no knowledge.

I'm doing an experiment this year removing half of my flowers and leaving the other half, both in my grow bags and in-ground plants. I'm going to compare my harvests to see how much difference in yield there is.

wait so why do stores call the cuttings and rooting potatoes "seed", if the plant makes an actual seed by flower/fruit? and i don't find them sold as seed. i'd just call them what they are, roots and cuttings. silly trend imo that didn't become applied to other plants?

I like your video but please cut it short….

My potato plants look lush, full, and happy, and I have been removing the flowers as they emerge. But I was wondering, would it be advantageous or result in producing more potatoes if I cut back some of the abundant foliage a bit as well? I have buried some of the plants' branches with the hopes of them rooting and making a larger crop of potatoes. What would you advise? Thanks!

Why are you soooo repetitive? We "get it" when you say it once.

Geezuskreist you ramble. I left your video to watch one that was more succinct and to the point.

End sentence….tongue click for emphasis….or to transition to next sentence. Repeat

hello... thanks for the great video...I noticed this morning that some of my potatoes were flowering. I'll be trimming those off and composting them. Thanks for the information from Oklahoma

I never subscribe to any channel that wastes my time during the video I clicked on to watch to tell me to subscribe to their content before I've actually seen any of it.

I have always left the flowers on. I have heard that once they dry up, you could dig up some baby potatoes. I have always had good size potatoes with the flower left on. Maybe it doesn’t make much difference to cut or leave be.

Thank you for the information. On my potato plants I am definitely seeing flowers and those tomato-like fruits

Thank you for your information on the flowers. Mine are full of flowers going to cut them off the first thing in the morning. No children but I prefer bigger tubers, good information. first time growing Russett and red potatoes. After reading some of the other comments. I think I will just cut half the flowers. First time growing potatoes. I am waiting until first week of October. I am used to growing sweet potatoes. just picked them had a good harvest. I am curing them right now. I enjoy growing any kind of potatoes. Low maintenance.

I subscribed again. Somehow, I was unsubsidized from your channel. Which I would never do. I love your channel ! I have learned sooo much.

I planted potato peelings and have a good few potato plants now. One of my potato plants is flowering in early June, I dug up five spuds then put the plant back to carry on growing. I'll let it go to seed out of interest. I've always removed flowers before. You mention temperature so I think that might be the reason why it flowered because we've had some hot days and cold nights

West Africans make stew with potato leaves. Never made me feel sick in the slightest. I'd recommend cutting candy bars from your diet before cutting potato leaves if you're concerned about poisoning yourself with food.

I would try to let the flower and possibly produce some seed so I could try to grow some from seed. I'm always trying some experimental things with things in the garden. Like I tried growing strawberries from seed this year to find out that the package was mislabeled and got basil instead.😂

Your potato plants are so small, my potato plants are approx 4 ft tall and are only just starting to get the flower buds, personally I leave my flowers on as the difference between leaving them on and taking them off is negligible. I just leave the shoots until they start to die back which then tells me they are ready to lift.

Wtf? I sure hope my kids wouldnt be out sampling flowers off every thing i have growing outside. As far as pruning flowers. No. I have far too many planted to do that. I bet you are hell on your tomatoes , squash and cucumber plants.

What I would do with the flowers... not sure... give them to you? 😇 Thank you so much, this was very well explained. You can see them form, long before they turn to flowers and will remove them the moment I see the flower pods forming. Think I've used too much phosphate, too early on but I am just experimenting, first year growing potatoes... in bags. #Modular

Flowers or not. This past summer my neighbor “planted” his potatoes on top of tilled ground. Covered then with at least 6” is straw. Kept it moist. Didn’t cut any flowers but no digging and had one of the best crops ever.

your muscular physique reminds me of what an ancient greek or spartan woman would have been like.

What you do with “what’s this thing on my potato plants” (flowers like all herbaceous plants have-“so weird”) is crossbreed. It’s fun and you can maybe develop a new variety-maybe even become world famous! First, remove the anthers from target flowers before they produce free pollen so they won’t pollinate themselves. These plants and their target flowers will be the mother plants. Next, when the ‘father plants’ (if you want to crossbreed, the mother and father should be different varieties or species) start to produce free pollen, collect it with a sable watercolour paintbrush, put it in a prescription pill-bottle or something; then brush the pollen on the pistils of the target mother plants (which have already had the anthers removed and are not yet fertilized). Mark these flowers somehow (I use a twist-tie from a bread bag, twist it around the terms just below the target flowers. If you are crossing more than two varieties, you might want to identify which is which right on the twist tie). To prevent unwanted pollination, you may remove the other, non-target flowers ( also to let as much energy flow into the remaining target flowers-the mother flowers). Let the fruit mature for the season. Then pick and remove the seed my simple mushing and rinsing with cold water. Dry the seed on a paper towel and store in a cool, dark place (so long’s they’re dry, you may put them in the fridge-but it’s not necessary unless you intend to keep the seed for a long time, in which case you put them in the freezer). Next spring, early, plant the seeds just like you would tomato or green-pepper seeds (they’re all in the nightshade family, look and germinate about the same way). Set the seedlings out in the garden (away from the food-crop potatoes so you don’t accidentally harvest them). They’ll grow just like a regular potato plant. When the top has died back (it’s a good idea to keep notes about each different cross to see how disease, rain and heat resistant they might be), dig up the tubers: they are tiny potatoes about the size of beans or peanuts. They will likely be a different colour than either parent. Store these baby tubers (make sure they’re not damp to prevent mood) and plant them the flowing year. You’ll get full-size tubers this time. Make notes about their size, shape, taste, colour, &c AND MAKE SURE NOT TO EAT THEM ALL-the ones you are most interested in you’ll need to do back-crossing. Back-crossing is the same controlled-pollination process, this time using pollen from the crossed plants (you’ll make them the father plants for this time around) to pollinate one of its parent plants (the mother plants). Repeat the steps, collect the targeted fruits, remove the seed and plant the following year. The same thing will happen-tiny tubers the first year. Except this “segregating generation” will reveal the pedigree of all the varieties’ ancestry: you’ll have tubers of every shape and colour-some quite bizarre. Again, keep these baby tubers and plant them the next year. You might select the best ones and discard misshapen or weak ones (that get rust or otherwise perform poorly). Now you will get full-size potatoes that are totally unique. You may name the variety and enter them as a novelty at the fall fair. You may use them for other crosses and back-crosses. You might find it very interesting and fun. There are many species of wild potatoes in their native habitat in the South American Andes (mostly Ecuador and Peru). From these all cultivars are bred. There are over 2500 varieties in nature and potential to breed thousands of crosses and select varieties for any number of desired traits. Did you know that Cortez the Conquerer noticed the indigenous Mexicans picking berries about the size of of currants with which to make salsa. From this variety all tomatoes of every size and description have been bred. Similarly, almost all dogs descend from wolves (the Rhodesian Ridgeback being the exception: the original cross was between an Italian Mastiff -a domestic dog-and an African Wild Dog-which is a separate species, more like a jackal. It took 65 years of back-crossing to get as much Wild Dog traits out as possible), yet look at the huge variation of size, shapes fur and temperament has been gotten by breeding. See Dr Carlos Ochoa, the world famous Professor of Potatoes (RIP). Have fun. We developed a strain we called “Strawberry Ripple” because the meat was marbled pink and white. The original cross was a Peruvian Purple potato with a Red Pontiac (the former being very close to wild and therefore containing a very diverse genetic constitution-the raw material for breeding). It took about seven years. We eventually abandoned them because they were very susceptible to summer heat-but, had we the time, we might have sent some up north to let the high latitude farmers give it a try in cooler climes. It tasted a lot like a Purple spud-tart-and was fairly creamy texture. Like Purple spuds, they are a bit off-putting mashed, but beautiful pan fried. Good luck and have fun.

be humble and ask people to subscribed to help you ,dont pretend that is for us(the truth should bring you many subscribers)

Bro I bought two bags of potatoes from food Giant and forgot about them and when I opened the closet I left em in a while later they where covered in eyes so I planted them and got like four grocery bags stuffed full back plus a basket we where overwhelmed with spuds and I only planted two and a half bags and didn't fertilize at all

Bin growing potatoes for 40 years potatoes like blue clay not much get damn good crop

Good n buettyful , my in to Aceh Heppy best friend

A whole video just to show cutting off a few flowers at te end ! Nope not interesting. sorry !

I watched a RU-vid video yesterday and someone actually did a test on this subject. He planted two rows of identical varieties. One row he left the flowers and the other one he removed them. The row with the flower left on produced a higher yield. Maybe it's something we all should try

Is that Queen Anns lace or hemlock behind you?

Hello...your video has truly aided me with my 1st harvesting of potatoes...thanks you

Thank you , I learned something new today I’ll put in practice.

What is the difference between a potato plant started from a seed or a seed potato?

Fascinating. Are potatoes able to cross pollinate with other potatoes nearby? And does this give us a new type of potato next year?

Thanks for the tip re: flowers, my maris piper plants recently began flowering as we've just had a heatwave over here, so im glad to know its likely that as theyre only 60 days old so far

Flowering usually happens in the middle of its life cycle, as you should get another 3-4 months of growth once the flowers appear

skip to the 4minute mark .... It took her 4minutes to get to the point

Have you ever seen a commercial potato grower removing the flowers?

Flowers are beautifull.

I grew my first potatoes. Full garden and bucket grown. 1 bucket has a purple flower. I may let it grow since its 1 flower. I am assuming when the leaves die its ready. Im not sure. I trenched most of my rows and added soil as they grew. But my potatoe plants are getting really tall. Is this normal to get 2 feet tall above the 1ft of soil above ground