Topic: What happened to my potatoes...?

[theamatteurgardener]

Hey everyone.

I've got two varieties of potatoes planted at the allotment (pixie and arran pilot) the arran pilots are doing marvellously (bottom picture) but the other ones looked like the leaves and stems were dead.

Can anyone tel me whats gone wrong with them and how i can avoid it? I've dug them up now though.

(Also should i be earthing up the happy ones?)

Cheers!

[betula]

Did they get the frost?

[ceres]

Frost?  If you'd left them in they would have probably come back again but you'd have got a slightly smaller/later crop.

I don't usually earth up until they're a bit bigger than yours but if it was forecast cold I'd earth up anyway to protect them. 

[theamatteurgardener]

Ah, I'm in the north of england so if anywhere got  the frost i probably did. I was just checking it wasnt blight or something worse.

I replaced the tubers with the variety that were unaffected so all being well, hopefully i'll have no mnore drama.

Thanks for the advice guys.

[Robert_Brenchley]

That's definitely frost damage, but you can see undamaged tissue down at the bottom. That's typical; a late frost trims them back but doesn't kill them. It would have to freeze the soil to do that. If you'd left them, they would have been fine.