frost vs potatoes

[mjpetersen]

Hi -

I live in Cambridge, have had an allotment for the last couple of years, and have not had to deal with really late frosts until this year. My question is this, my potatoes were hit by the late frosts in May, and all the top growth was killed; but now there is new growth starting to emerge... will the spuds be ok or will they be more susceptible to disease (as a result of being weakened by the frost)?

[Capsid]

The main disease of spuds will be blight and that is independent of frosts. So blight aside I think they will be fine.

[Paulottie]

Welcome to the vine

You will get a smaller later harvest. Yes as a rule vigorus, quickly grown plants are going to shrug off attack best but it is not so much you are a lot more likely to have disease;

As capsid said however blight is a significant problem most years...It comes mainly with the rains and thus the longer/later you have them in the greater the chance of blight.