[GREEN FINGERED NOT]

Have desire and anya in the ground, they have all flowered and I have dug up some of both, not sure whether they should be dug up and stored or left in the ground?  The anyas have a slightly flowery texture and are getting quite large, the desire are as you would expect, lovely but also where the flowers were they have green tomatoe looking things on the plant, what are they for seeds to get to seed potatoe level or just a green looking tomatoe?

[mumofstig]

Welcome, I'll move this to Grow Your Own where you should get some answers 

[Trillium]

Those little berries on potato plants are indeed seeds, but rarely used as such since they'll take a few years to be useful. Those berries are toxic (tomatoes and potatoes are part of the deadly nightshade family, and so named for good reason), so either bin them or compost them.

Normally potatoes can be 'furtled' during active growing, to gently burrow with hands to remove the first larger potatoes, then replace the soil for smaller potatoes to keep growing.

Once the entire plant shows signs of dying back (usually after flowering), it's your choice to either dig up the plant and store the potatoes, or simply pull away the tops to avoid any blight floating around and dig potatoes as needed. Marking off the growing area helps later when memory fails a bit.

[doglady]

Hi,we have grown our own for 3 years now and we just use them as we want them straight from the ground.however IF you still have some left after say Oct and the weather is bad then I would get them up and store them in the shed or somewhere dark and dry in either paper or dried out  peat or compost.We did that last year and had them untill Christmas and the new year..yummy!

[TerryB]

If you leave them in the ground keep checking them as the rain will wash away the soil and any close to the surface will go green.

[aelf]

Once the plant tops have died back, the potatoes stop growing and will store well in the ground up to the first frosts. Some near the surface will go green as Terry B says but my main consideration is pest damage from slugs, wire worm etc which can be become considerable the longer the potatoes are left in the ground.

I dig mine up around the end of August. Pick a dry day (if we get one  ) and leave them on the surface of the soil for a couple of hours to dry and the skins to harden a little, then bag them in paper or hessian sacks and store somewhere dark n cool that won't freeze in the winter. They should last many months then. Any damaged spuds should be used straight away as they don't store well.

[sunshineband]

I like to leave my maincrops until the leaves have died back, as then they have stopped growing. Before then, I always feel they could have gotten bigger if only I'd left them 

[GREEN FINGERED NOT]

Hi  Thanks for the info, never sure reading all the info, will keep an eye out for slugs then follow general advice of digging, cleaning, leaving out to dry in sun for a few hours then dry storage in paper\hessian bags

[TerryB]

Check any in store periodically because any that rot will soon effect the others.