Potatoes

I am not very lucky trying to grow potatoes, first lot of potatoes I grew turned out ok & I mean ok just a few big ones rest all small, second lot of potatoes I grew got blackleg  had to burn them all, Now my third lot have all gone brown from the soil to the top of the leaves, no green leaves left everything brown.

Every time I planted the potatoes I moved to a new patch on the allotment also used new peat from Wilkinson's, just don't know what I am doing wrong.

Everything else I am growing is doing fine apart from my toms never went red so had to harvest them green and take them home and put in newspaper with a banana.

Now my third lot have all gone brown from the soil to the top of the leaves, no green leaves left everything brown.

Have you tried digging any of them up to see what they're like? Like Yorkie says, they could be ready to harvest. Have a look on the Web for pictures of potato plants that are ready to pick. You'll see they go all brown and withered.

You didn't answer Yorkie's question as to which varieties you planted, also when were they planted?

Sounds like blight got the last lot.

Cant remember the name but they was an early Autumn potato from Wilkinson, planted late August.

grinling I don't know if anyone else had blight Or blackleg or any other diseases, no one passes that info on to each other unless you are good friends with someone who has had blight or something.

Hi Colin,
Do you have an allotment on a site with others or do you garden at home? If at home, you might find a book useful or look through John's pages on how to grow assorted vegetables and other advice. There's a mine of information on John's site, not just in these threads.
If you have an allotment on a site, you might be able to ask an old timer to have a look at your plants and give you advice. They're usually only too willing to give it! If you keep an eye on what other people are doing, that's also quite a good way to see who's doing what when.
Sorry if this comes across as teaching your grandmother to suck eggs!