[animal mad]

hi, i am really new at growing potatoes , the plants are started to die back, i thought i had to let them flower first. my book said to cut back plant and leave for 2 weeks, someone on the allotment said i should get them all up now, what should i do, how do i store them

[Paul Plots]

What made you cut them back?

If they had blight then that's a good reason.... then you would normally leave the spuds in the ground for 10 to 14 days before lifting them for storage.

In the case of potato blight the idea of cutting back and disposing of the tops is to prevent spread of blight spores to the soil & crop. Leaving the spuds in the ground for a few extra days gives them a chance to produce thicker/tougher skins that will withstand storage and avoid blight spores (so I understand it).

If the tops died back gradually and did not appear to have blight - then you can lift them as and when you like. Leaving them in the ground until you want them wont hurt unless:

• there are lots of hungry slugs about
• you find tiny holes in the first lot you dig - in which case get them out sooner rather than later or there will be even more tiny holes! 
• the weather is very, very wet
  

If you are growing on an allotment site have a look around and see what others are doing.

Either way / what-ever you do don't worry - go and dig up a plant's worth now, buy some butter, shove on a pan - cook and enjoy after the hard work of growing them! 

By the time you arrive back here (having tasted your first spuds) there will be some better advice, I'm sure. 

[Kristen]

"i thought i had to let them flower first. my book said to cut back plant and leave for 2 weeks"

I think this is referring to leaving them in the ground for a couple of weeks after the foliage has died down, to give the skins time to harden. For maincrop the foliage will only just be starting to die down, or not yet even, so probably no rush.  This will usually be a fair while after flowering.

In the event of disease cut off the tops, and dispose of, and again leave for two weeks before lifting.

Lift on a dry sunny day, leave the tubers on the surface for a couple of hours to dry (don't leave them for days or they will go green!) and then store in hessian sacks, or similar.

If you want any to eat, now, rather than store, then lift as many as required

[goose]

Thanks animalmad for asking this as i was told to dig mine up yesterday too.  my leaves are only just beginning to die back so i had a "furtle" and although the spuds looked lovely, they are not big enough for me yet to store for winter roasts (king eddies), (although i "furtled enough" to collect enough for a nice potato salad tonight)

looking around the plot, it seems that peeps are only digging a few up at a time, probably for immediate use too, so this has stopped me taking the advice of my neighbour and im going to leave them for a while longer.

does anyone know how much longer i can leave them as i would like them to get to a decent size, however, one of the spuds did look a tad scabby ...thanks.

[DD.]

If your leaves are beginning to die back, I'm afraid the spuds won't get any bigger.

[goose]

thanks dd, i wasnt aware of that. will have to get them up on my next day off

[goose]

my apologies, animal mad, if i hijacked your thread, although i think we were asking the same kind of question ...thanks again for bringing it up.

[Highfield]

Lift on a dry sunny day, leave the tubers on the surface for a couple of hours to dry (don't leave them for days or they will go green!) and then store in hessian sacks, or similar.

Ummm- can I order a dry sunny day please? 
Unrelenting rain here and more forecast   

[animal mad]

i am glad it is just not me asking the silly questions. i am going to get my spuds up tomorrow if the rain holds off, as the green has totally died off now. thanks for your help.
Vicky

[lovemyveg]

What a smashing question, it has answered all my fears and worries over my crop of potatoes.  I have been digging, as required, but the green haulm is dying back quite fast now, so I was wondering what on earth I should do next.  Roll on a good sunny day so that I can see exactly what is going on down there. 

[matt.k]

Yes great question and some really great answers too - thanks alot

My problem is that it is soooo wet here that i can't imagine when i'll be able to get anything out of the ground - which in itself is quite worrying right now