Here in TX, most spring farmers markets start may 3. If you sell at the markets anywhere, it would be nice if you would list what you will be selling each week, where, the address, and hours. Some of us are out here wanting to buy.

Only three more days. Has everyone stopped selling at farmer's market?

We held our first farmers market of the season yesterday and we did very well, even given how little we had to sell so early. But we sold bread, lots of greens, and quite a lot of plants (daylilies, yarrow, mints and roses.) The other sellers had onions and potatoes.

No tomato plants? I have some of the ones you recommended for tx growing for season 2

We are not selling tomato plants anymore, no.

Anyone have potatoes yet? They have some at the Athens tx market, which is 15 miles from us. Maybe I should check mine? I planted March 15th, so they should be ready by June 15 th.

Our potatoes are pretty much done. We've dug about half of them and I need to get out there and harvest the rest. Some people were selling potatoes 3 weeks ago in Jacksonville.

Ok, I thought it said somewhere that they were ready when they flowered. Wrong?

Mine flowered quite some time ago...

I see. Well, up north here, mine don' t even have buds. Maybe they never will. I pushed down on the leaf mulch, and felt nothing around one of the plants. Covering with leaves/hay was an experiment, if it doesn't work, next year, its dirt in their eyes!

Not a farmers marketer here but... potatoes don't have to bloom to produce.

I planted mine Valentines day which is the standard in this area. I planted a raised bed of them. As the plants grew, I added oak leaves. I found the potatoes grew in the soil and the oak leaves only served to help retain moisture.

I dug one fourth of this 2' x 8' bed last weekend and had over two dozen potatoes. My plants never bloomed. I need to finish digging the potatoes so the bed can be replanted but guess I will need to can the potatoes as I can't eat that many that quickly. http://canninggranny.blogspot....

The local farmers market had lots of sellers and more buyers but not much fresh produce to sell yet. Yard eggs, house plants, last years pecans and such like.

That's disappointing about no potatoes in the leaves.

with Kristi -- potatoes don't have to have flowers to produce. I've read that you can start harvesting new potatoes when the plants flower, but some just never do -- not sure if this is variety specific, weather related, or what.

I dug up 2 of my potato plants from the leaves, and there where no potatoes at all anywhere. Going to cover the whole mess with dirt and wait 3 months. Can't get worse.

texaskitty111 said:I dug up 2 of my potato plants from the leaves, and there where no potatoes at all anywhere. Going to cover the whole mess with dirt and wait 3 months. Can't get worse.

When did you plant them or should I say cover them with leaves? Did you fertilize them when you planted?

I grew a potato bed in oak leaves four or five years ago. I did harvest a moderate crop from those leaves.

They were planted on top of compost, in a 8'x8' square. There was low release fertilize in it. Plants grew fast. Was your potatoes under leaves slow to produce?

As I recall, yes, they were slower. I suspected they stayed cooler in the leaves. The dark soil will heat up quicker. Seems I also remember they needed more fertilizer although the water requirements were less.

How long does it take a potato plant to actually grow (usable) potatoes? Do Irish and sweet potato plants take the same number of days? Is there a way to tell, perhaps by looking at the plant itself, when to start digging up the potatoes?

I think sweet potatoes take around 90 days -- but they need a lot more heat than the "Irish" potatoes do (I've tried sweet potatoes before and the best I've ever done is a few very small tubers; but Irish potatoes grow fine here and a lot are grown commercially in my area. From what I've read, you can start digging "new" potatoes when the plants start to flower (although some of mine never do so, making that a little tricky), and dig mature potatoes when the vines shrivel. Basically, here in the north I can plant (usually) in May, and the plants die down by early September.

Could it be that it's just too hot in Texas now?

Ken, sweet potatoes are perennial here. You have to battle them from taking over the garden. Wonderful though: you fight back by eating them.