1. Yes
2. maybe
3. when vines dry or first frost.

Okay - thanks!!

You need about 90 days left till your first frost.
Fall planting potatoes down south starts in late July to early August.

I don't know if this is similar, but many times I have potato leaves growing out of my compost. But they never really make potatoes. I hope you have better luck.

let 'em grow, we do we only cover with mulch, and harvest when tops die off.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens instant potato patch

To Answer the question: WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
short answer: From your kitchen !!

Aparrantly you are peeling your potatoes(while cooking) TOO thick. Or maybe there was a potato that you discarded.

Technically, to grow potatoes you need a thick skin with an "EYE", The rest of tomato is just extra nutrients for the growing plant, as is the contents of an egg for the chick to grow and hatch.

Seysonne, thanks for the explanation. They didn't come from my kitchen - they came from the kitchen of the farm where I got my compost, but, yes, I was wondering how that happened.

Len - your potatoes look waaay better than mine!

Catherine - yep, that's exactly what happened, but I'm hopeful there's potatoes under there. It's just a bonus-freebie, so no great loss if there aren't any. But it would be fun! I got a lot of free plants out of that compost - besides the potatoes, there are some canteloupes (just setting fruit, probably too late to get ripe) and maybe some winter squash ( hasn't set fruit yet, so I'm not sure what it is). We'll see....!

LOL ffreidl.......that's interesting that so much is growing out of the free compost! I've had tomato plants grow out of mine. Unfortunately, the stuff usually gets too late a start and doesn't produce much. I had a cantaloupe grow out of mine once and was almost ready to harvest, but an animal beat me to it.
Good luck with your stuff! Let us know how it goes.

Len, thank you for posting your instant potato patch! Why do you use the dolomite and gypsum? Do potatoes need a lot of sun and water?

A couple times I have buried the old potatoes with the eyes growing out of them in the garden compost pile (just garden and yard debris, mostly browns) and they've grown and produced small potatoes, but I bet if I actually put some effort into I would get better potatoes.

we get volunteers from where we grew them because we miss some little ones, but also have had them appear from peelings.

dolomite not regularly used just here as it was X pine plantation so we get spots of high acid soil, so where we eat like 'tater's i do it to be sure they taste nicer.

no along with adding organic matter(heaps of mulch) gypsum breaks up the clay allows for better moisture absorbancy and holding, also releases entrapped nutrients.

we use heaps of gypsum and get great growth from all plants, picked 6 of those 'taters yesterday(to create planting spots for tomatoes and pumpkin(volunteers). got a bucket of spuds, around 4.5 kilo's, from about 1/2 what we bought, we bought 1 kilo seedies and planted in late feb' @ $2.50 AUD a kilo

the shop still has them so will buy more and chit them for next feb'.

we give them full sun through winter, and yes we maybe would get best of show if we had more water, they like water. but we are happy get more than enough for little input to share with our kids.

as these are new spuds we eat them unpeeled.

len