Sante Potatoes -stunted Growth

[girl47]

I planted Sante seed potaties in March thgis year - in early May they had a slight ground frost attack and the top of the foliage turned brown & wilted - since than they have grown only slightly and I have no flowers .
This is my first year of having a veg plot - when should I dig them up?

[gojiberry]

Not all potatoes go in for flowering. You could try digging one root, but then if you don't have many one root may be a bit expensive if there is nothing there. You could try carefully scraping away some of the soil to see if there are any potatoes there. Or try calculating from the time of sowing to time of harvesting adding a couple of weeks for the frost set back. Dont know if Sante are early or main crop. Earlies take 12/13 weeks main crop 15/16 weeks anything else somewhere in between.

Ian

[Flummery]

Sante means health! They were bred to be resistant to lots of spud diseases. You didn't put any manure on in Spring did you? There are several threads on here about manure contaminated with hormone weedkiller which is particularly bad for spuds and toms. Normally, they spring back from a frosting and throw up more growth.

[girl47]

No, I did nothing special - no manure or anything - this is my first year & my first plot - but I noticed one other plot holder with the same problem as me - but many others seem to be ok
any ideas when i shold be digging up Sante - ideally??

[Two_Sheds]

You should go and have a furtle ... rummage around in the soil under the foliage. It's the only way to tell if they're ready.
I mulch my spuds with grass clippings instead of earthing up. To furtle, I just have to push aside the grassy mulch, and there are my little spuds, just waiting to be taken! No digging!