emudryj

Started from old store potatoes about maybe a couple of months ago...

It looked super strong, green, and alive until a week or 2 ago.
Now it looks like the pictures below. not so green, some of the flowers and leaves are melting and getting brown, etc...
The only thing I can think of is the extreme heat levels we are currently seeing here in south FL.
I'm watering it mostly every day around sunset when they are not going to be hit by direct sunlight until the morning.
What do you think? too much heat? too much water? too little water?

HookedOn

My thoughts. Not worth much but I say heat. I live in south Alabama. Our golden rule says potatoes are planted on Valentine’s Day.

Team Rock On

Once temperatures hit the 90's here the potatoes go downhill fast. The temperature in and around that black pot probably exceed 150 degrees. I'd put them in the shade and see if you can prolong their life or just pull them and eat what's there.

RipTideBBQ

Slugs maybe. Every time I’ve tried to grow potatoes, the slugs eat everything, and they do it quickly!

Flatland fisher

Mine are doing the same thing in Nebraska, they are shaded some during the afternoon. Not sure what is happening..

airbrush

root rot. let them dry out. watering every day is excessive.

cheeseman

Too much water. Give them a little shade. There also may be too many plants for that container. Water in the am not at dusk. Watering lade brings pest, and mold/ fungus.

Dead Horse

put the plant in the ground and hill it up

cohea

I'm a novice at gardening but one other thing I've read is that recently cut wood chips (which seems to be what you used as a top mulch at least) can actually rob nitrogen from the soil causing a lock of nutrition to your plant.

If the wood chips are only on the surface of your soil it *should* only affect seedlings and transplanted plants/potatoes start with roots deep enough that it isn't an issue.

If you mixed in fresh woodchips throughout the soil then this would also be a potential issue and a quick Nitrogen soil test would tell you for sure.



"A common misconception is that fresh wood chips tie up nitrogen during their decomposition. For sure, nitrogen depletion will be a temporary problem when fresh wood chips are incorporated into the soil, which is why we should only use fresh chips as a surface mulch. In this case, nitrogen depletion would only be right at the soil surface, which may be one reason wood chip mulches are efficient at suppressing seed germination. Because of this, and the general coarseness of wood chips, they probably are best not used around vegetables and in annual flower beds."

Dwalt

Potato growing season in Florida is over. All the farmers here in the potato growing capital have harvested and gone on vacation. Next year, plant earlier and use seed potatoes for better results.

peacemon

No help here but my buddy filled his hot tub up with dirt and did well growing potatoes here in hot Florida.

jocko

I just started growing things this year. Waiting for these strawberry plants to produce some berries.

ZENFOLD

I believe it's the heat. I have the same issue here in PA. We finally have temps in the 90's and they started turning yellow at the same time.

emudryj

moving it to a place where it does not get so many hours of sun now... will see if it recovers...

emudryj

Nope... do not thing are slugs... I think in the last 10 years in this house I have only found 1 slug...
Also, I check the plants at least once a day, so I think I would have seen them

emudryj

Planning to do this in the near future... I already built a raised bed. 12ft x 4ft x 2ft high.

Just need to find good potting soil without having to sell a kidney to fill it up

emudryj

The heat has been brutal these past weeks....

lodel

Should be worth more than $6.00/qt. Looks tasty to me as is.

crazybeard

Wrong season for regular potatoes in S. FL. Its sweet potato time, maybe even a little late for that now. Check the FL AG calendar for your zone.

Edit to add, there are a few good FL and SFL specific gardening groups on FB if that's your thing. Can learn a lot from there.

Daddoi7

I bet I live near you (Hastings?). I would say blight and not enough fertilizer. I grew them puppies for 25 years.
I grew some white and red potatoes from some sprouted store bought potatoes in my garden, they had a good yield of large potatoes. I did plant them in January and sprayed a few times for blight and worms.