[shay]

My earlies were growing well, had an accident which put me out of commision for two weeks. Returned to the plot and about a quarter of the plants have a few yellow leaves on them, is this blight or the fact that not only were they competing with the growing weeds which had great fun in my absence but had not been earthed up as much so sunlight has got too close to the bottom of the plant?

Been lucky for the last two years in the sense had no problem at all, mind you it was on a much smaller plot and I didn't get hit by a car.

[drdave]

My earlies are starting to yellow off too. Its not blight season and the weather has been fine and dry. They may be dry, or they may be ready! My Pentlands and Rocket and Sharpes express are ready now, the plants are starting to flop over.
Blight is chocolate brown leaf patches. Some viruses cause yellow leaves.

[shay]

Do some earlies not flower then? I can't remember what type they are but timewise would suggest maybe they are? Should I dig up a coupe to see?

[DD.]

Some earlies don't flower.

I'd have a furtle rather than a dig!

[shay]

lol just as well I asked otherwise I could have been waiting for quite a while.

Have just two rows, if they are indeed ready do earlies like to be taken out of the ground and stored? Don't want to risk them rotting if left for too long.

[DD.]

Earlies can be stored, but only as mature spuds.

"New" spuds will quickly go off.

[shay]

Sorry to be a pain......so if they are ready how long should I leave them in to become mature before I take them out? 2 rows of 15.

[DD.]

For mature spuds, time is immaterial.

The foliage is the indicator, when it dies down, the spuds will not grow any more and are ready to be prepared for storage.

[shay]

Nice one, thank you.

[Salmo]

The best place to store earlies is in the ground.

[MoreWhisky]

Out of my 45 earlys (home Guard) 3 have gone yellow and all poorly looking! They are in different places in the rows to next to perfectly healthly looking plants.

Dug one up and there not much underneath got 2 small potatoes and about 8 minature ones.

Still not found out what this is , any ideas

[Goosegirl]

Sounds like those seed potatoes were not as good as the rest. Hope the others do ok.