Allotments 4 All

Due to the blight alert and the fact I lost loads to the darned thing, although my potatoes are still nice and green i have decided to lift them.  How does everyone else manage to dry their potatoes for storing in this weather.

Under the caravan!

I was stupid last year and did not dry them well enough :-[

Don't do anything to your spuds unless you actually see that you have blight. Just because there is an alert does not mean you will get it.
If it hits, chop off the haulms of your earlies, right to the soil. You should then be able to leave them in the soil quite safely until you want them, although they will not get any bigger.
Same applies to maincrop, but will obviously badly affect the yield.
Has worked for me in several years

Yes I agree, I wouldn't lift them unless you are sure they are affected, and then it takes a while to hit the tubers. I always just lift them in a dry spell and leave them in wooden crates for a couple of days in the shed!

Agree with above posters to lift them if blight around just contaminates the tubors.
If you cut the haulms off I always leave about three weeks- but if all ok I leave and keep checking.

if 1st earlies are lifted will they keep  worried this weather will rot them as i have  too many to dig  when  required

yes but eat them as you go, they will not keep as well. Store the maincrop for into next year.

Chuck your spuds all over the lawn for the afternoon so the skins can dry and harden making storage safer.   Cheers,   Tony.

Wouldn't the rain get them wet.   :P :-X

Leave it until you see blight on your allotment or until Blightwatch shows definite cases in your area !.I note that there are no confirmed outbreaks anywhere near your area.
Most times when you get alerts of a Smith period nothing happens. Certainly in July it is unlikely - even given the lousy weather we have had.

You can cut them back and still leave them in the ground, or if you realy do want to dig them up, leave it until a sunny dry day is forecast and dig them up in the morning, leaving them to dry all day in the sun for the skind to harden so that they will store well, then keep them in a sack ( you can get the paper ones from fruit and veg shops /markets etc - just make sure they aare dry ) somewhere dry away from frost.

Keep your eyes open. It's endemic on a lot of allotment sites, so it just appears the moment we have a couple of Smith periods.