[Deborah1]

My Nicola potatoes leaves were starting to yellow and I was thinking about getting ready to lift them in the next couple of weeks. Now I see that the blight has arrived so I'm going to cut off the tops anyway. My problem is that I have had massive problems this year with voles (which I've posted about) so I'm a bit worried about leaving them in the ground any longer.
Will it make a huge difference to storage potential/yield if I dig them up now? Leaving them for the voles to eat isn't appealing! Thanks for any advice.

[mumofstig]

It boils down to weighing up how much damage you think the voles will do, versus how aggressive your blight is/how resistant the variety is to tuber blight.

Details for Nicola on the database here - http://varieties.ahdb.org.uk/varieties/view/Nicola

If you do decide to lift them immediately, make sure you regularly check the bags/boxes for rotting tubers. That's all you can do.

[sunshineband]

And if it helps you to know this' I'd dig them up. We also have problems with rodents eating potatoes and they can do so much damage so quickly.

Cut the tops right off, dig them up and move them somewhere clean, bright & dry to dry off before storing, only store undamaged tubers and like MOS says, check regularly to make sure none are rotting... the smell usually is a giveaway there

[Deborah1]

Thanks both of you for your prompt replies. I've just started lifting them. No vole damage at all so far . No signs of blight on the tubers. With luck I hope I spotted it before it went down. I will be checking them regularly once they're stored.

[al78]

Just make sure you eat the ones you pierced with a fork first. 

[victoria park]

Well, I'm a bit disappointed in finding one of my King Edward tubers suffering from blight. Now wishing I had cut the tops off earlier than I did, before those really heavy couple days of rain 10 days ago. Still, that's the chance we all take. It's such a huge crop too.

I will lift them all in the next few days and give them a thorough examination and filter out suspects. I think my Desirees were blight free on the halums, so they should be free of storage problem. I won't make the same mistake next year, but it really didn't look that much like blight. Ho hum.

[greenjay]

the blight came really quick on mine. tops are all cut off now, time will tell if I caught it early enough.
when the weather improves I will lift and sort. I like a nice sunny day to dry the soil left on the potatoes so I can rub off, grade and bag.
remember rodents can find them in the bag to.

[TREGRAHOW]

No blight and definitely no voles - I grow mine in 30litre pots standing on black weed membrane. Downside is the need to water very regularly and cropping is not as heavy as trench spuds. Biggest gain is not having to ridge up row after row of soil. Also no bad back when they are lifted. Finally, no rogues turning up next year. Swings and roundabouts. Enjoy.