[AnneB]

Some of my potatoes are not behaving as they should.

Forgetting about the Pentland Javelins, Sharpe's Express, Charlotte and Wilja that all caught blight and are now waiting in the soil for another week before I see what remains after I chopped the haulms down,  my maincrops are not doing what I expect nor are my Home Guard in an old half beer barrel at home.

All were planted on 4th April.  The Home Guard are quite tall, but have not flowered.  I had a furtle this morning and the barrel seems rammed with small to medium sized spuds.  That is good, but should I wait for the flowering before harvesting?

At the allotment, my Cara and Picasso maincrops are thankfully blight free so far.   They are not very tall though, about a foot above the soil I would say, although I have earthed them up quite substantially.   I haven't had a furtle as they should be nowhere near ready yet, but the Cara are flowering now.

The advice seems to be that potatoes are ready when they flower, but my experience this year says that isn't necessarily so.  Anyone else had this sort of thing?

[bravemurphy]

Yep mine are doing the same the flowers dropped off ages on the Kestrel, we dug one up last night and the spuds are very small and need another week or two I think, maybe more.

[simonwatson]

I generally ignore the flowers and just furtle around until I'm happy with what's underneath the plants.

[Headgardener22]

I do exactly the same, ignore the flowers, take the potatoes when you want/need them. I always end up with more potatoes than we can eat "fresh". I start very early when we might need three roots for a decent meal but after a couple of weeks they bulk up to one root for two meals.

[DD.]

There's a difference between early an main crop.

Now this is a generalisation. Earlies are mostly grown to eat as "new" potatoes, so you harvest before maturity. A good guide as stated is the flowers. This is when they can be harvested, but they can be left longer.

Maincrop/late potatoes are mostly grown for use as a mature spud, or for storage. In this case the plant needs to be grown until maturity. This is when the foliage starts to die down. This will be possibly 6 to 8 weeks or more away, depending on when they were planted. There is no point furtling now and expecting to find large spuds!

The potatoes are, in fact, behaving quite normally!

[AnneB]

Thanks DD.  As you say, the maincrop won't be ready now, so I haven't furtled them at all.  Just surprised that they were flowering ahead of first earlies and that they are quite short in comparison.  However, as you have explained the flowering isn't a guide to maturity for maincrop.

[jondav14]

my main spuds flowered about 10 days ago, first earlies are all up and finished (last ones picked today), second earlies looking very tempted to start lifting now though, will have a looksee at the end of next week

[3759allen]

i was always under the impression that when the main crop are flowering is the time the potatoes will be growing and swelling under the soil, and this is the time that they need a lot of water for the tubers to swell.

some of my main crop last year flowered twice for some reason, not really sure why and i don't think it made any difference to the crop.

i leave mine until the foliage die off so they grow to there biggest size possible.

the foliage on my mains have gone bonkers this year and taking over the path and well over waist height. not sure if this is a good or bad thing, i'll find out when i dig them i guess.

[cadalot]

My first and second are on the way out

[mumofstig]

Have those few plants got blackleg, Cadalot? The others look so healthy, I'd be a bit sus 

[hiccup]

my seconds. ( charlotte) are flowering now and just a nice size, can they be lifted and stored
  before they get to big?

[DD.]

Immature potatoes will not store for any length of time. They need to go full term.

[cadalot]

Have those few plants got blackleg, Cadalot? The others look so healthy, I'd be a bit sus 

I could dig some up to see I suppose, but they did flower early and are due for harvesting in the next couple of weeks. I've lost all the foliage of my early earlies grown in the greenhouse and have harvested some already

[Rexmundi]

I have planted potatoes (which are flowering now) but don't know whether they are earlies or main crop. Is there any risk in just waiting until the flowering has finished and the foliage has begun to die back before beginning to lift them?

Thanks

[DD.]

None at all. Just don't expect "new" potatoes!