Potato question

[sheena]

I was talking to my dad the other day and he said that to get bigger spuds, they used to trim back the leaves (like when trimming tomatoes) if you can understand what I mean.

When you see a new side shoot growing at the base of a leaf stem, trim it back the leaf stem.

Just wondered if this were true?

I wonder if it works, as instead of putting all it's power into doing 2 job's (making spuds and foliage), it can concentrate more fully on producing the spuds.

Ideas?

[womble]

I find it hard to believe, I know that if you only leave one shoot on the seed potato it will grow bigger, rather than more spuds.
The leaves make energy for the roots to grow tubers, so removing some of the leaves, as far as I can see, would make the crop smaller.

But maybe someone knows if this is true or not. That's just my gut feeling.

[Two_Sheds]

instead of putting all it's power into doing 2 job's (making spuds and foliage), it can concentrate more fully on producing the spuds.

It can't produce tubers unless it has leaves to photosynthesise

[rustylady]

I'm with Womble and Twosheds on this one. I can't see how it could work.

[sheena]

That's what I was thinking... thanks for confirming.

Note to self: Dad don't know everything lol