[bigben]

Last year a grew a lot of earlies and was pleased with the first 3/4 of the crop. I Just lifted as I needed them but perhaps because of the rain the last lot to be lifted went bad - blighted I assume. I have heard that main crop spuds are more prone to blight. This year I have my own allotment to bash into shape and half of another to maintain. I plan to plant about 120 seed spuds - a third each earlies,  early main crop and main crop. This is twice what I grew last year and I am worrying about them getting blighted. What is the downside to lifting the maincrop early (soon after the earlies are ready? Is it just smaller spuds or do they lose keeping quality as well. I have never grown main crop spuds before but like the idea of having some in storage.

[stompy]

On our site most of the old hands only grow earlies.
They mature well before blight becomes a problem, and you can leave them in the ground a little longer so they take on a bit more size 

[bigben]

I have started to pick up that a lot of people go in mainly for earlies but I perhaps foolishly bought a pack from T&M with a mix of spuds so need to try to make the best of what I have.

[stompy]

Put  your mains in with your earlys you may get a month or so head start, other than that im not sure about this, just an idea but would covering them with envirofleece or something of that sort stop the blight 

[madcat]

According to the books I've read the plan is :-  When the blight hits chop the tops off the potatoes still in the ground quickly so it doesn't have chance to infect the tubers under ground.  Then leave the potatoes a week or so to harden up before you lift.  That way you maximise the crop and minimise the risk of damage.  Seems sense ...   

[bigben]

It does seem sense Madcat - thanks for that.

Do you leave them under ground for a week then dig them up and leave the main crop ones on the surface to harden after that?

[madcat]

This is all theory to me but it makes sense with what i did the year my mains got demolished by blight.

I think the idea is they harden underground after the tops have been chopped off.  If you leave them on the top of the soil they would be vunerable to the blight spores, wouldnt they?  So when you lift on a nice day, you take them away to dry out as quick as is reasonably poss and bag to keep them out of the light (to stop them going green).

(I have a particular horror of green potatoes - I know if you store them in the dark they will go proper colour again but .....  we used to get green chips / roasties for school dinner!   )

[digalotty]

Put  your mains in with your earlys you may get a month or so head start,

im on the understanding that you plant all your potatoes at the same time weather earlies or maincrop.
madcat is right saying if you are caught with blight chop off the humes and leave the potatoes in the ground for safe keeping , you can then lift the potatoes when needed
the disease is carried in the wind and is to do with humidity so i dont think mesh will do anything to stop it ,
 imo you will just get a smaller spud but as they tend to grow larger anyway no harm done

[aelf]

I've had mixed results with main crop spuds but my Charlottes have, so far, always been reliable. They do well for earlies and if you leave them, they get big enough to boil for mash or use for roasties and jackets. Very reliable, and no blight so far! 

[Jay The Digger]

Mine were lifted early last year due to blight.  They were all up by the second week of September.  They were a lot smaller then usual, but this may also have been due to the dry summer we had.  The maincrop (Maris Piper) went in at the same time as my Charlottes (mid March).

They stored with no problems, so the only drawback as far as I can tell is that they don;t have a chance to fully bulk up.

[digalotty]

dry summer ... i forgot about them two days