Yukon Gold Potato

Solanum tuberosum 'Yukon Gold'

vegetable

Yukon Gold is a popular early-to-midseason potato with smooth, thin yellow skin and moist, buttery, golden flesh that is excellent boiled, mashed, or roasted. It sizes up faster than storage russets, in about 75 to 90 days, holds together well when cooked, and yields uniform, good-keeping tubers.

✅ Plant alongside

Good neighbors that attract beneficial insects or deter pests

• Bush beans — Repel Colorado potato beetle and add nitrogen
• Horseradish — Traditionally planted at bed corners to deter potato beetle
• Marigold — Deters beetles and nematodes
• Keep away from tomatoes — They share diseases; do not follow one with the other in rotation

❌ Keep away from

🛡️ Pest & disease prevention

Proactive ways to stop trouble before it starts — tap a name with an arrow for its full guide

• Colorado potato beetle →

  Rotate well away from where nightshades grew last year; mulch deeply with straw; hand-pick adults and crush orange egg clusters; row cover before emergence

• Flea beetles →

  Row cover seedlings

• Greening →

  Hill soil over the tubers and store them in the dark

🌾 Harvest & storage

Harvest new potatoes a couple of weeks after flowering for tender, thin-skinned eating, or wait until the tops die back for fuller-sized tubers with set skins for storage. Dig on a dry day, cure briefly in a dark, airy place, and store cool and dark; Yukon Golds keep well, though not quite as long as russets.

🥗 Nutrition & benefits

Yukon Gold potatoes eaten with the skin supply potassium, vitamin C, vitamin B6, and fiber, and their golden flesh carries a little extra carotenoid pigment; like all potatoes they are naturally fat-free and filling.

⚠️ Toxicity & safety

Eat the tubers, not the green parts. Potato leaves, stems, sprouts, and any green-tinged or sprouting tubers contain solanine and should not be eaten. Store tubers in the dark, and cut away any green or sprouts before cooking.