Fingerling Potatoes
Fingerling Potatoes remain obscure even as their heirloom cousins such as the yellow fleshed and All-Blue varieties grow in popularity and show up regularly at the local grocers.
Fingerling Potato Characteristics
I like fingerling potatoes because they’re unusual, attractive, tasty, and easy to grow in the backyard garden. Fingerlings are also very productive and display very good disease resistance.
As the name suggests, fingerling potatoes are somewhat finger shaped in appearance. They are smaller, longer, and much narrower than the more common and popular potato varieties.They also have fewer and shallower eyes.
Skin colors range from red, pink, and white, to yellow, purple, or cream colored. The flesh is usually white, yellow, pink, or blue in color.
Cooking with Fingerling Potatoes
Fingerling potatoes are delicious and can be prepared and cooked the same as ordinary potatoes. Some fingerling varieties such as “Russian Banana” are especially suited to creating fantastic potato salads because of their flavor and firm, almost waxy textures.
In addition to making great potato salads, fingerlings are great when boiled, baked, or roasted. They can even be grilled, roasted over coals, or added to vegetable kabobs.
Cultivation and Harvesting
Plant fingerling varieties just as you would plant other varieties, except you can plant the seed tubers whole or cut in half. The growing season is longer for fingerlings and they require more time to mature and size up.
Don’t bother with trying to harvest baby fingerlings, just let them grow until it’s time to harvest mature potatoes when the vines start to die back. After harvesting, brush the dirt off but don’t wash them until you’re ready to cook them, and avoid prolonged exposure to sunlight.
Attractive Fingerling Varieties
Popular fingerling potato varieties include:
- Rose Finn Apple – Great tasting fingerling with rose colored skin and yellow flesh.
- French Fingerling – Another red skinned, yellow fleshed fingerling potato.
- Swedish Peanut – Nutty flavored, golden fleshed potato that is good baked or roasted.
- Russian Banana – These yellow tubers create the ultimate potato salads.
- Red Thumb Fingerling- This one offers red skin covering reddish-pink flesh.
- Purple Peruvian – A slightly finicky, purple fingerling potato variety.
Other Related Vegetable Gardening Posts:
March 11th, 2006 at 10:52 am
I know I am jumping seasons here, but:
Are potatoes a root crop that can overwinter?
I’m in zone five, S/E Michigan.
March 12th, 2006 at 2:50 am
Hi Jenn, it depends on what you mean by overwintering and what you’re trying to accomplish. Here in Zone 6 potatoes that are missed at harvesting time in the summer or fall will survive the winter in the ground and sprout the following spring. But you won’t get any fall growth from the tubers and they won’t sprout any sooner than spring planted seed potatoes, so there’s no benefit gained from fall planting or attempting to overwinter. You also run the risk of the roots being damaged by extreme cold or that they wind up being snacked on before spring arrives.
March 12th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
That answers my question. Thanks!
(I was curious about the plants sprouting from the compost pile!)
June 1st, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Hi Kenny great website and full of great gardening tips this is my first visit since joining.
Never heard of fingerling potatoes before potatoes are one of my main interest since becoming an allotment holder some years ago and i try as many different varietys as i can each season.Will be putting up your web site address on my notice board so other allotment holders can see for themselves what a good site for gardening it is thans .regards Dave Anderson Dundee scotland
March 19th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Hi, I was just wondering if you can grow the fingerling potatoes in Alberta, Canada? If so where would I purchase them in order to grow them? Thanks.
March 19th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Hi Robin, I’m not familiar with the climate in your area, but if you can grow regular Irish type potatoes in your region you shouldn’t have any difficulty growing the fingerling potato varieties. You can try the Seed Savers Exchange as a source for certified fingerling potato seed stock.
March 20th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
[...] I settled on growing a fingerling type potato because I really like the waxy texture and the versatility that they offer in the kitchen. Fingerlings are just as easy to grow as the common standard potato varieties. [...]
May 9th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Decided on planting fingerling, but after I planted I realized that perhaps I planted the rows to close. The spacing if 12″ per potatoes, but the rows are only 12-16″ apart. Will that be a problem?
May 9th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Mimi, that planting distance is fine for your fingerling potatoes but be sure to hill some soil up along the rows as the plants grow to provide a little more depth, give support for the vines, and to prevent the tubers from becoming exposed as they begin to mature.
July 7th, 2007 at 10:42 am
[...] fingerling potato varieties are planted and the Purple Peruvian one is displaying a purplish tint even on its [...]
October 14th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
[...] the dogs, while I scoured the place looking for some good food finds. I was really looking for some fingerling potatoes and came up without any, but did find some really beautiful leeks and other varieties of potatoes. [...]
February 24th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Hi I live in Southern Alberta Canada and was wondering where to look for and buy Fingerling Seedlings
March 9th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Is it possible to grow the potato from a potato with roots on, and if so when do I plant?
March 9th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Hi June, if you mean potatoes that have sprouted, yes they can be planted, provided that the sprouts are strong, short, and thick rather than weak, long, and spindly looking.
March 10th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Thanks for your reply. Think I will give it a try!!! HAGD
March 15th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
i love eating these they taste grate and are really easy to cook. what im wondering is if they are exotic and hard to find or if they can be found anywhere that sells potatoe seeds. if you know please reply ASAP.
March 15th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Hi Madeline, fingerling potatoes are not difficult to find unless of course you are shopping for them in the grocery store. Even there they are becoming more popular these days. Many of the seed potato suppliers offer fingerling type seed stock. I have purchased seed potatoes from both http://www.woodprairie.com and the Seed Savers Exchange in the past.
March 16th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Thank You! I will do that!
May 13th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Where can I get some Russian Finngerling seed potatoes in a hurry?
May 13th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Hi Judy you can try Wood Prairie Farm or the Seed Saver’s Organization, but it’s usually a good idea to order your fingerling potato seed stock early because they often run out as the planting season rolls around. Good luck.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:20 pm
So, are Swedish Peanut Fingerling Potatoes an early, mid, or late season variety? I am having a tough time finding out if I need to do some “hilling” on them or not. I found out with Yukon Golds I don’t do any hilling since they are an early season variety.
July 30th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
[...] didn’t really understand what she meant till I got the chance to harvest some fingerling potatoes with Anne last [...]