Finally managed to get down the plot this week now its stopped raining & I have less going on at home....my tatties aren't looking so good...which I half expected....but I am not sure if they are salvageable.
The valor look very healthy just need a good weeding...but the robinta & milva look very sorry for themselves...they were planted very very late so wasn't expecting much...but didn't expect all this rain to make things worse ::). Had a good weed & poke around the milva yesterday. They have completely lost all their leaves...what few I can find are dry, brown & shrivelled...but most of the others are long gone & the stems look like the slugs/rabbits/pigeons & everything else have had a field day - they look very chewed & soggy :(. I had a rummage around & dug up one plant (well stick would be a more accurate description!) & found lots of perfect but tiny potatoes...quail egg size or smaller.....which is probably about right as I planted them late. My question is will they get any bigger or are they doomed now the foliage has all gone? They will make a nice potato salad I should think...but would be nice if I get them to grow a little bigger ;)
TIA
Saz
Apparently: if you dig bury your small spuds in a small hole together and cover them up, leave them for about 3 weeks - they grow a little bigger. Never tried it myself but an older wiser allotmenteer on our site told me earlier in the season.
My late potatoes have all died back now because of the blight and the tubers are not very big at all.
Some are going rotten and the slugs have had a lovely time.I usually get at least three sacks of potatoes but this year its only half a sack!
Sorry, Fork. I have in fact posted on this before. Once the haulm has all died back or been removed the plant simply dies off and the skins begin to set or have already set. In either case no further growth of the tubers will take place.
I`m afraid that the tale about burying the small potatoes and waiting for them to grow larger is just another old wives` tale. It`s a biological impossibility.
Yes I know all about it.
I left my potatoes in because it was too wet to get at them until recently.
I know they wont grow anymore.I lifted them to at least get some potatoes for my effort and not leave them to the slugs etc.
Well - I've been patient but this is the end of the road!!
Oh dear. it certainly looks like it Tim......
I'm off to dig up the remains of my potato harvest this afternoon, the haulms have been cut for a couple of weeks so it's time to see what has been left behind..... :-\