[hiccup]

Evening All

          We had hard frost on friday night, and all my lovely tatties ( international kidney and
             pentland javelin) which were about two to three inches high, got completely burned
             off. My question is will they recover, or is that it for this year. waiting with fingers crossed.
                 cheers.

[Goneterseed]

Others are welcome to correct me on this, but it's not as if its been hit by blight and will go all the way down to the tubers. I'd cut the damaged bits off and see what happens. It may only be a bit of foliage damage.

[Yorkie]

Assuming the tubers haven't also been affected, which at this time of year is less likely than at colder times over winter, you're probably going to be OK.  I'm not sure about cutting the tops off - see what others think about that.

If further frosts are forecast, cover them up with fleece or newspaper or anything to keep them a couple of degrees warmer.

[18Forts1999]

Hi all,
I had this problem last year and thought it was going to end in total disaster...but no!
I cut off most of the affected leaves and then covered the lot with about 3 inches of grass cuttings - not rotted down but nice fairly fresh bits. Spuds survived and came through the grass very quickly and I had a bounty harvest

[berbie]

Leave em alone. Do nothing. They'll be fine

[Trikidiki]

I'd just leave them alone, they should produce more leaves fairly quickly.

I would be wary of putting on grass clippings to thickly, I tried it once and the shoots just couldn't get through the mat of grass and I had to remove it, lots of rotten shoots below. I guess it depends on how wet the clippings are/get and how tightly they mat together. I use them on raspberries and they sometimes struggle but they are 'butch' enough to eventually break through. They should be alright to put on once the shoots are through as a mulch under the the potato leaves.

[hiccup]

Thanks everyone  been worried about them all weekend. thats great news, cheers again.

[Salmo]

In a week you will hardly notice the damage. If you live where frosts are expected in May consider planting your potatoes a bit later so that they do not come above ground until frost are less likely.

[ptarmigan]

Slightly off topic but agree about the grass clipping, they are great as mulch once the leaves are through but putting them on before creates a kind of mat.  I quite often use them as mulch to keep down weeds on brassica beds.

[sunshineband]

Slightly off topic but agree about the grass clipping, they are great as mulch once the leaves are through but putting them on before creates a kind of mat.  I quite often use them as mulch to keep down weeds on brassica beds.

Excellent idea if you have enough grass cuttings. I am not sure we have for ours. I ridge the ground up as I plants the tubers and leave enough earth for another earthing up.

My daughter does the opposite and mounds up soil between the rows, knocking it down over the shoots as they appear and then reversing things by further earthing up. We both get potatoes!

And if you need any further reassurance that yours will be fine ptarmigan, mine were frosted three weeks ago and you would never know now! I'd run out of soil to earth up with!

[fatbelly]

This has happened to me in the pst.
Leave them be do nothing and they will almost certainly be fine, just a bit later than you first thought.

As regards he grass clippings people do it on our site and I'm giving it a go this season.

[JayG]

Agree that care is needed if using grass clippings to cover and protect - too much and the shoots will struggle to get through, especially if it rains and matts it all down, too little and they won't do much of a job of providing frost protection.

For that reason I only use clippings as part of the earthing up process when the top growth is already well established.

[Vagabond]

This is very interesting to read about using grass clippings for frost protection/mulching. I'm going to grab the clippings next time my husband mows our lawns and use them to mulch the current plantings in my raised beds.