How do I know when my potatoes are ready?

[ThisIsMyCurrentUsername]

Reasonably experienced flower gardener here! Zero experience of veg. Bought potatoes and put them into pots and, bloody hell, they actually grew! Checked the packet and one pot says to harvest "June or July"...there is just the huge stalk with big green leaves. Nothing else has ever happened, it just got bigger and bigger but hasn't grown for a few weeks. Never flowered or anything (is it meant to?).

So...how do I know when my potatoes are ready? Dig one up? I'd so like to have been successful!

It'll flower at some point and it's either when they flower or when the flowers die I think.

When the above ground bits begin to die a bit.

Wben did you put them in and what variety are they?

Eventually the above ground bits will die and return nutrient to the storage organs ie the potatoes. So wait till the tops are dying down, then probe gently in the soil to see how the tubers are doing.

They do flower, but it's a bit later in the year - it may be governed by day length, I don't know.

Potato is basically a perennial, it overwinters as a tuber then uses the food stores in the tuber to throw up new shoots which photosynthesise like mad to replenish the stored nutrients and hopefully add to it. Except in the UK the tubers are eaten by slugs. So harvest of main crop is a matter or leaving it as long as possible so amount of stored nutrient is as high as possible, but not leaving it so long that you have a lot of slug damage.

Ok I had a look and the leaves at the bottom are now turning yellow? No sign of a flower. I'm useless, I bought them from the garden centre and I think I planted them around March/April? I did it whatever time the packet said.

If it helps I think one variety said it was good for baking and the other variety was good for salads...sorry, I wasn't expecting them to actually grow! I really tried this time though. I even remembered to build up soil slowly in the pot!

If in doubt wait until the foliage starts of die off.

I wouldn't worry about a few leaves at the base going yellow. Wait till the whole plant is dying off.