[missmoneypenny]

Went round to the lottie yesterday and all the potatoes above ground (new pots, cannot right now remember the variety) were frost damaged. Absolutely everything above the ground had gone from green to brown, the colour is like a manilla envelope. Will there be any recovery/ new shoots coming through, or should I cut my losses and dig out?
Luckily i was late getting my lady crystal in, and they are still below ground.
Thanks in advance for any advice.

[mumofstig]

They usually recover, it just sets them back a bit.
Quite a few of us have been saying the same thing lately - but that's the chance you take for an early crop.

[sunshineband]

They usually recover, it just sets them back a bit.
Quite a few of us have been saying the same thing lately - but that's the chance you take for an early crop.

Mostly they'll be just fine

[missmoneypenny]

Thanks everyone and sorry if i was re treading old ground. Many of us ust be in the same boat.
The longest standing member of the allotment (50 years and counting) said they'd amount to nothing, but I think i'll leave them in.

[Salmo]

Potatoes that are just showing when they get frosted soon regenerate. Perhaps they will be a little later maturing or lose some yield but I doubt if you will notice.

If they are badly frosted when a foot high with a lot of new growth they take a long time to recover and the yield can be cut considerably.

The forecast says no frost for the next 10 days or so. Beware the Ice Saints days in the middle of May. St Pancras, St Servantius, St Boneface and St Sophia, known as Cold Sophie. Saints days on 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th May. It is surprising how often we get some warm days with clear skies at night about then

[missmoneypenny]

Thanks Salmo.There does seem to be  a pattern to these things. We seem to get a lot of very cold Aprils.
Sadly I think my early blackcurrant bush's flowers got frost bitten  too.

[mumofstig]

Much of March and  April was unusually warm and dry, though, wasn't it?
It's not unusual to get a cold snap or frosty nights, this month but we can get those well into May (and even very occasionally June 

We just have to make allowances for weather in this gardening lark, don't we?  - keep an eye on frost forecasts and have fleece handy 

[ghost61]

I covered my pots and they still got frost bitten.  A couple of days on and loads of new shoots, so don't worry!

[jaydig]

I covered my pots and they still got frost bitten.  A couple of days on and loads of new shoots, so don't worry!

Yes, my potatoes were frosted, with all of the original foliage reduced to a messy black/brown sludge. This was on Saturday.  Yesterday when I went to the plot I could already see loads of new shoots pushing their way through the remains of the original leaves.  I'm sure that farmers don't run round fields with covers for the spuds when frost threatens, and I've also found it nigh impossible to kill off a random self set potato plant without literally digging the whole thing out, so I'm sure they'll be ok.

[missmoneypenny]

Thanks everyone. Went round yesterday and there's quite a few green shoots coming through the old brown stuff. My dahlias seem to be recovering too. Good point about the volunteer potatoes being nearly indestructible.

[victoria park]

In my head, particularly for maincrop potatoes, the odd early frost does less damage to the ultimate yield than blight at the other end.
There's a window of threat free growth in between that the potatoes have to do their best. People should dual run differing planting times to find what suits their particular situation and climate., and experience the difference over a couple of years.
Most years, come late July, early August, there are always a bunch of allotmenteers wishing they had sown their storage potatoes much earlier.