[fletcherbaker]

Hi all this was my first year at GYO and it went really well had some great crops,just a question about my spuds though i grew them in those big potato bags filled with multi purpose compost!I had a decent grop but had masses of foilage it was drooping all over the floor was this due to something i did or does this happen i used just plain multi purpose compost and used crowmore every week!!

[aelf]

my spud plants grow to about waist high and tend to fall over if it gets very windy so I have a wind break around them for most of the season. That's growing them in the ground, not in bags 

[bigben]

Mine did the same last year - spuds were ok though.

[fletcherbaker]

The spuds were fine didnt get as many as i thought i would but tasted fantastic i grew a few in open ground and the foilage wasnt half as  much!!

[JayG]

Although Growmore is a "balanced" fertiliser I'm wondering whether feeding them with it every week might have promoted excessive leaf growth at the expense of tubers.

You can have too much of a good thing! 

[solway cropper]

I've found that container-grown spuds always produce more foliage than those in open ground and I suspect that JG is correct. There may well be a tendency to over fertilize them whereas those in the ground get nowt but the muck in the bottom of the trench and the odd seaweed feed.

[Jay The Digger]

I also find that container grown spuds need more watering, and this too may be causing extra green growth.  The problem then is that the more foliage, the more transpiration and the more they need watering. 

Has anyone ever tried "pruning" potatoes?  When they are in the ground it is almost unthinkable as they smother the weeds, but trimming the tops may focus the energy on the tubers.  Thoughts?

[Yorkie]

By trimming leaves you reduce the amount of energy being supplied by the plant to the tubers.  I'd leave well alone