Surprise! Have some snow little potatoes

[Briztank]

A sad day today in little old Whanganui, New Zealand. We had a bit of a snow flurry which has never happened in my 33 years being on this beautiful green planet!

I'm quite concerned as I've planted 40 odd seed potatoes a couple to 3 weeks ago and 2 days ago the little green leaves finally popped through. The snow wasn't heavy and almost disappeared as soon as it hit the ground but I know we're in for a frost tonight. I've covered the plants with a mulch/compost cover and hoping for the best but I'd like to seek advice on the following, keeping in mind it's never showed here and since owning the property (3 years) this is going to be our 4th or 5th frost:

1 - do I uncover the plants in the morning, clearing the frost from around them so they get the full sun as early as possible and moves the icy frost away.

2 - is it ok to leave the mulch/soil covering the plants which is roughly 50-100 mm on top.

Cheers in advance for any tips, I've grown tonnes of potatoes but this is a new factor thrown in to work with.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I haven't done much gardening with snow, so don't necessarily take my word for it but... if it's really this light a snow and frost your plants will likely be fine, especially if day-time temperatures compensate for it enough. The mulch is definitely a good option to provide a barrier between your soil, plants and dirt. I personally would leave them covered.

I may have to look at @DThille though, as he has more experience with snow than I do.

 

[DThille]

If it is getting above freezing during the day, I'd uncover them. That said, the plants likely are young enough that they can still draw energy from the seed potato. I'd think the plants should recover, although they may be set back somewhat.

Potatoes are in the same family as tomatoes and will set adventitious roots. That's part of why we hill the plants and they'll continue to root and set new tubers. Thus, I'm sure you'd be OK leaving the mulch / soil on them. Hopefully by the time they grow through that things will have warmed up enough to be away from any risk of spring frost.

Our official weather station reported some snowflakes here last night, but we're at the opposite season and I dug the last of our potatoes yesterday.

 

[Briztank]

We didn't get a frost last night very surprisingly as it was quite cold but beautifully warm from here on out it sounds. I've got 50 odd seed potatoes planted but they're a range of types so maybe I uncover a couple and leave some covered as an experiment I'll throw up a couply photos I took yesterday morning of how little they were but they're covered up for now, cheers for the advice I was quite concerned!

 

[Briztank]

Just an update from this season for all that were concerned - see the pic for deets. Last year spud growing i trialed minimal watering and had a large amount of tiny spuds...so gutting. This year i think I'll have my best potato producing season as I've invested more time into watering, fertilizing and my prep work before planting was real extensive. Surely you can't show too much love to the potato plants?

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

That'd be very gutting. But trial and error makes for a better future. Knowing what DOESN'T work is just important as knowing what DOES. It teaches you what works best for you and your situation.

 

[Briztank]

That'd be very gutting. But trial and error makes for a better future. Knowing what DOESN'T work is just important as knowing what DOES. It teaches you what works best for you and your situation.

Must write this down