overgrown potato shaws

[slimjim]

Last year grew 2 bags of potatoes with great resluts this year planted 15 rubble sacks with seed potatoes. The shaws have grown very tall including the rubble sacks they are circa 5ft 6. They look healthy, are good colour and thick and luxuriant in growth, the garden is almost North facing and I thought poor light may be a factor but I am stumped. My sons refer to them as the triffids

[zazen999]

Sorry, what's the question???

[Alice]

Have you been feeding them SlimJim. One year I had enormous shaws on the Red Rooster but I had been feeding them. Now I just add manure at planting time and don't feed again. The crops are still the same.

[slimjim]

The question was has sometghing gone wrong or is it just down to poor light levels inducing overgrowth?

Yes I did use a tomato feed but this is high in potash so I wouldn't expect a lot of green growth. I used the same tomatp feed last year

[terrier]

Could be you've just got very healthy plants. Make sure they get plenty of water, the greenery will be deflecting most of the rain from getting to the roots.

[Cutecumber]

Different potato varieties have different amounts of top growth, just like they have different yields of tubers. This year, my International kidney tops were very sturdy, short and strong but Anya were very thin and wispy, for example.

If you grow potatoes even slightly in the shade they will grow very tall haulms - in my own garden I often put a few in odd corners and the tops go mad. I tie them round with string and they support themselves well enough.

Sometimes, the tops grow at the expense of the tubers, but you won't know until you harvest, I'm afraid!

[zazen999]

Sorry; I thought you were talking about shaws being a type of potato???

Yes, they grow tall if they need to look for light.

There's only one way to find out - furtle!

[Snadger]

My Pink Fir Apple tops usually grow 5 or 6 foot and I have to stake them!