Potato towers: The explosion

June 25 — They're massive. They've flowered, and a few have fruited.

It's approaching the time for me to dig my hands in there and harvest a few new potatoes (potatoes with flaky skin).

I'll cut the water and let the plant die if I like the size. This gets the potatoes to suberize.

Otherwise, I'll water for a few more weeks to keep the spuds growing bigger. Harvest won't be as much of a cinch as I was expecting, seeing as the nearby squash have made access to the towers a bit of an obstacle course.

See what happens next: Follow Johanna's potato tower experiment in Fresh Dirt (our garden blog).

More: Learn more about growing potatoes in the Sunset Plant Finder