Orphaned Baby Spud problem

I ordered a load of organic spuds from Thompson and Morgan which I carefully put in labelled egg boxes in my brand new Argos greenhouse to chit.  They were a nice mix of first earlies, second earlies and maincrops - the only problem is that my greenhouse blew over and I ended up with a big heap of mixed spuds and had no idea which was which.  Out of desperation I bunged them all in in mid-April.  They've all come up, some faster than others, but what I want to know is, is there any way of telling which are earlies and which are maincrops, or should I just dig up the biggest ones first?   

nightmare! same thing happened to my greenhouse 2 years ago. Now it's lashed down with 10mm polyprop rope tied to lengths of scaffold poles driven into the ground. It aint going anywhere!!
As for the spuds, I put my earlies in 2 weeks before my main crop and both have shown at the same time and are about the same size plants! The earlies should flower first, that's the time to start digging them up. Bit of a lottery for you tho

Don't normally let potatoes flower but I think this may be the only way.

Not come across this before - why not let them flower? Does it affect the spuds in some way? I have always just left them alone till i need some or the stems yellow, then dig them all up and store in sacks.

I chit in the greenhouse too

Aelf

I cut and pasted this piece from 'gardenaction.co.uk' . I googled potato flowers.

As the potato plant grows, do not remove or 'stop' the foliage, it is supplying food to the tubers. However, remove any flower heads or buds which appear because these will produce potato seeds which will divert energy from the potato tubers.
Obviously the farmers don't do it-they would be still there now.

And I cut and pasted this from 'RHS' after googling potato chitting.

Keep the trays of tubers in a cool but frost-free place with at least moderate light, such as in an unheated room. Direct sunlight is best avoided.

Incidentally how do you transfer internet site addresses into a message like this?

Another site 'ukonline. co .uk' has a section on potatoes which includes pictures of the flowers by name. (googled potato flower) If your variety is listed you should be able to identify them.

Wombat you have my sympathies, last year my OH (must have had a senior moment) planted 1st and second earlies all  mixed up together , so didnt know which was which.  (We didnt have a good crop anyhow.) 

Think you will just have to go with the flowering solution

i've had heavy crops for several years without removing the flowers, I don't think it can make that much difference, after all, the tubers are about as big as thay are going to get once the seeds start to form.

I have got fist and second ealries and maincrops, and the first ealries have their flowers open and others are just in bud. Don't know if that is true for all varieties but it seems to make sense 
F/es are Maris Peer and Pentalnd Javelin

You're fine with the Red Duke of York cos it has reddy/dark stalks and red tinge to new growth (i'm growing that one)....my charlottes are a lot paler green than RDofY and about twice as high, with buds starting to form ....but i planted them mid March.
At least you can identify one of your 1st earlies