My potatoes have been bashed to bits!

[jools02]

Hello, I hope someone can advise me. Due to the bad weather, wind and hailstorms we've had down here my potatoes (which were doing really well) have been bashed to the extent where hardly any of the shoots are standing. Most of the stems have snapped in half! Is there anything I can do? They had not started flowering but I think they were due to in a couple of weeks. Are they going to be alright or should I harvest them before I lose them? They are in large deep containers if it helps.

[Alice]

That's a shame Jools but they should be allright as long as they still have some top growth. I've seen whole fields of potatoes battered flat on their faces and they were fine

[Flummery]

As Alice says, they should cope ok as long as there's still some greenery attached. Plants are amazingly tough. They even cope with our cack-handed ministrations!

[ckfe]

my swedes are in a similar state.. they've only got roots at the moment, no sign of a swede looking thing but they're all floppy where the wind has battered them about, they're about 6 inches tall and looking very sorry for themselves, they're just sprawled out on the soil

[maytreefrannie]

I put a few sticks in the bin and tied cord loosely around the stalks.

This was following some advice from grapes a few weeks ago when one stalk in another pot broke.

This seems to have perked them up a bit. Someone pointed out to me that the sharp tops on the sticks could be a problem if someone fell and got jabbed by them, so I put some small plastic bottles over them (the stick tops).