[arh]

My Desirree potatoes are starting to flower. My question is:-, "would it be better to pinch off the flowers, thus putting more effort/goodness etc. into the tubers, or let them flower, thus assisting the plant to produce more tubers??". Thank you for all replies. arh.

[DD.]

For the relatively minute amount of energy that goes into the flowers, it's really not worth it. Most of them drop off anyway.

You don't see the wholesale producers doing it!

[arh]

Thank you for that DD., that was my way of thinking, they flower well out in the fields, but only having 10 bags of them, I was prepared to do it, if it was thought to be beneficial.

[shedmeister]

Leave them and let them grow. Farmer brown does not pick off a zillion flowers just to gain a couple of taters

[mumofstig]

The only time I removed them, was when the children were small and might have thought of eating any that set fruit... needless to say, that was a long while ago 

[snowdrops]

I leave the flowers but I do try to remove the fruits, not sure if it's right but I don't want the fruits seeding all over the place, plus from this year we'll be having little ones up there & as mum says I don't want her eating "green tomatoes " although she will of course be taught not to pick & eat without adult supervision 😊

[arh]

Thank you all for the replies, that is a good idea to remove the fruits, I shall do that as long as I remember, bit pointless putting them in bags if one lets them self seed everywhere. arh.