Potato Problem

Two weeks ago we planted some potatoes for a fall crop, of course there were no seed potatoes but I found some red potatoes at the store that were starting to sprout.

Since nothing has come up I dug around in the rows and there is nothing, no hint of the potatoes that were planted. It is just like they dissolved. Does anybody have any clues as to what has happened? There was no sign of bugs or any animals.

Two weeks for potatoes which are *just starting* to sprout when you plant them isn't much... they can take that long or longer to show up above the ground.

However, not being able to find any of your seed potatoes is weird. My gut says you simply dug in the wrong spot, but it seems you'd know where you planted them! I'd keep the row watered if it needs it and give it another 10 days. If there's still no sign of growth and even using a digging fork doesn't find any seed potatoes... well, then you can call one of the late night radio hosts and report a mass spud-napping!

Summerthyme

I never thought of spudnapping, I wonder if we could catch those spudnappers with an infrared sensor alarm?

The rows were marked and I was suspicious of how they were doing because we have had almost complete potato failures here before and one or two years out of ten were fantastic potato crops. It certainly isn't like any other place we gardened. The failures were failure to sprout, sometimes just a rotten potato sitting there and sometimes found nothing like this time.

give them awhile, then the leaves come up, add more dirt, then they flower-took mine about 6 weeks to get to that stage, then they look like they are wilting (so i've been told ) and then you dig up! i dug up a plant yesterday, they are just starting to flower, and there were tiiny potatoes on it.--I'm so excited to finally be able to dig them up--first of sept--i think should be good. i am thinking of getting some potatoes that have eyes on them and doing a fall crop.

I found this and the ground is heavy and was fairly wet when I planted them and then we had unseasonable cool nights right after that for a week.

Lots of info here about potatoes http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/rowcrops/pp877w.htm

Most seedpiece decay is caused by Erwinia bacteria. Erwinia seedpiece decay
(SPD) is favored by cool, wet weather. The cool weather slows down seedpiece
growth and the moisture favors the bacterium, which is very sensitive to
drying. Excess water also inhibits resistance of the potato to disease.
Erwinia can enter not only through cut surfaces and wounds but, more
importantly, resides in the lenticels (breathing pores) of the tuber. When
conditions of low oxygen occur in the field (wet soil), the bacteria become
active and can rapidly decay the seedpieces. Most potatoes, except those
recently derived from stem cutting programs, contain Erwinia bacteria in the
lenticels. In a sense, bacterial seedpiece decay is a disease waiting for
the right conditions to trigger it.

No seed potatoes found, yet they were sprouting when you planted them.

Sounds like spudnapping to me. Are you sure there were no signs of animals?