RE: Unidentified subject!/Yukon Gold

Last year I grew potatoes for the first time in several years, thinking
that they hadn't really been worth the space. But I heard good things about
Yukon Gold, so decided to try them. Like you, Martha, I didn't think there
could be any potatoes so early, but started feeling around, and found lots
of fairly large ones. And delicious spuds they are...absolutely the best
I've ever eaten. 

Myrna, Zone 3. Montana

At 05:01 PM 6/14/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Yukon Gold potatoes have a _very_ short growing period - 55 days,
>where other "early" potatoes take 65 days and "late" potatoes take
>90+ days. 
>
>I would bet that the yellowing leaves are normal dying-back, and that
>your potatoes are starting to wind down. I know they haven't
>flowered, but not all potatoes flower each time they're grown - my
>Yukon Golds didn't flower, either of the two times that I grew them.
>The vines will probably continue to die back over the next few weeks.
>Be wary of the mistake I made one year - I thought that the potatoes
>couldn't _possibly_ be ready, so when the plants started to die I
>watered them extra. The ready-to-harvest potatoes reacted by sprouting
>and putting up new plants. :)
>
>If you have  several plants, you could burrow your hand under the
>ground around one of 'em, and see if you find any potatoes down
>there. Even though you give up production by stealing potatoes early,
>it _is_ terribly exciting to discover that, yes, indeed, there _are_
>potatoes!
>
>My Yukon Golds weren't terribly productive - many of the potatoes
>were pretty large compared to grocery Yukon Golds, but there weren't
>a lot of 'em. Next time I grow potatoes, I plan to have one bed of
>fairly closely-planted Yukon Golds, and another bed of a late-season,
>high-yielding potato (probably Yellow Finn.)
>
>But don't let my talk about a small harvest discourage you - those
>homegrown Yukon Golds were _good_.
>
>Martha
>
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