Harvesting and Storing Potatoes in Prince Edward Island
Dig Prince Edward Island potatoes before the ground cools hard, since the average first fall frost lands October 17 and in half the years frost arrives…
Home & garden, state by state
Everything we have worked out for Prince Edward Island: what to plant and when, which varieties finish in time, the pests that actually turn up here, and the jobs that pay off month by month. We also cover the rest of the property, from lawns and soil to home care and energy, because a garden rarely stops at the vegetable bed.
The numbers first, because everything else follows from them. Measured at the weather station in Charlottetown, the last spring freeze falls around May 16 and the first fall freeze falls around October 17, 1,569 growing degree days in the year.
That is enough for early varieties, tight for anything late. Garlic does well: 34.8 weeks below 40 °F, comfortably past the six it needs to form a proper head.
Elsewhere on the property in Prince Edward Island: the pests that turn up here.
Figures from Environment and Climate Change Canada. A state is not one climate: elevation, a large lake or the coast can move these dates by two weeks either way, so check your own county with the extension service before you spend money.
Dig Prince Edward Island potatoes before the ground cools hard, since the average first fall frost lands October 17 and in half the years frost arrives…
Prince Edward Island’s short, cool maritime season favors early and mid-season potato varieties chosen for boiling or baking use, not long-season types…
September in Prince Edward Island still has room for quick greens, garlic near the end of the month, and cover crops on any bed that’s finished producing.
Prince Edward Island’s October sits almost exactly on top of its average first fall frost, October 17.
November in Prince Edward Island sits well past the average first fall frost, so the open-ground planting season is essentially closed.
By May in Prince Edward Island, the soil has usually thawed enough to work, but the average last spring frost doesn’t arrive until May 16, and that’s a…
In March, Prince Edward Island gardeners plant almost nothing directly in the open ground.
June is the month Prince Edward Island gardens really open up. The average last spring frost at Charlottetown falls on May 16, so by June most of the…
July in Prince Edward Island sits deep in the growing season, well clear of the frost windows on either end.
In Prince Edward Island’s Canadian hardiness zone 5b, January ground is frozen solid and usually buried under snow, so nothing goes into open soil this…