Size was not the problem. They had zits! Three of the five tubers had little white bumps on them. They did not seem like a rotting type of feature but were not very pleasing to look at due to some old teenage angst I never really put behind me.
After cruising the web for a bit I found the probable cause. Too much watering that caused their lenticels to swell. Swollen and protruding lenticels may sound like something you would make a reality show about but it turns out they are just the pores on the skin of the potato. When they stay in too moist of soil they swell up. I found the info in a couple of places. This link has a bunch of other useful potato growing tips.
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/hortcrop/pp756w.htm
Here's an image of my swollen lenticels.........get your mind out of the gutter. Note that not all the spuds had the same amount of problem. The deeper buried ones were in the soil that stayed wet and had the most zits.
I have the potatoes planted in 3 foot diameter cages with compost heaped up over a foot above the ground level. The compost dried out much faster than the base garden soil so I let myself be fooled into thinking they needed water. I'm digging into the other two cages this week to see how the other varieties fared. It looks like better watering practices are needed by yours truly.
As a side note I keep running into two irritating things regarding plant problems on the web. Number one is poor or no images of the problems people were reporting along with crappy imagery on websites that were trying to show what the issue looked like. Let me know how this image works for you. I'm serious - let me know.
The other thing was all the gardening gods making prophetic announcements that they knew exactly what the root cause of a problem was with little information to go on. Many times the original poster would come back with a "you were wrong" reply after they got some real help. In the case I am presenting regarding the swollen lenticels I saw most of the gardening gods claiming that it was nematodes with all the associated pain in the neck actions needed by the victim gardener. Glad I kept looking.
Thanks for the great images. I just dug up my nordonna potatoes and they have the same problem. I live in coastal Alaska and it was mother nature rather that myself who "overwatered" my plants. Thanks for providing visual confirmation of my problem. My understanding is that it does not effect the edibility of the potato.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this, along with a visual. I too, become frustrated when I'm searching the web for answers to my gardening questions and people lack a good photo to help explain.
ReplyDeleteThey are still edible, correct?
The spuds are generally edible but they don't store at all since the skin is punctured. I ended up just pulling out the ones we were to eat immediately. This also makes them more prone to in ground decay :-(
ReplyDeleteyou're funny and your info very useful, thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great images. That explains my potato pimples, we had a week of rain.
ReplyDeleteIn real estate they always say "location, location, location" but in gardening it often seems to be "drainage, drainage, drainage"
ReplyDeleteHi guys and gals! I saw this too! Scared the heck out of me. Thought my crop was ruined. As I planted the extra seedlings in plant pots big ones. Just dumped them today(earlies). Saw the pimples. Shock and dismay! But now I know they are fine. So when I cook em up tonight. I will think about my teenage years!
ReplyDeleteGreat info and picture, I just dug up mine and was a bit freaked out....resting easy now thanks to your post and other's comments.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your picture! I dug up a few today as well and all three varieties had the same pimples. I'm not sure of the names, they were in a red, white, and blue combo package at Sams. We've had tons of rain lately and the ground was very soggy so it does make sense.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your picture! I dug up a few today as well and all three varieties had the same pimples. I'm not sure of the names, they were in a red, white, and blue combo package at Sams. We've had tons of rain lately and the ground was very soggy so it does make sense.
ReplyDeleteYep! Me too, to all of the above! Lol I was so looking forward to 'new' taters and was really shocked to see this - I grew in containers this year and of course we've had a lot of rain lately...I thought I watered them too little, but I guess I should've held back! Lol Hope they ARE good, doesn't look very appetizing! ��
ReplyDeleteI just dug up my first attempt at growing potatoes and they looked like your picture (thanks). It rained a lot here too (unusual for Colorado). Next time I will watch the watering.
ReplyDeleteWe are so prejudiced but learning to grow and eat my own veggies means I will be eating imperfect vegetables! HA!