Potato Mystery

[arthur billet]

Hello all,
I have just joined and dont have time to read all previous stuff at the moment however I do have a problem which is potatoes. I am growing them in a raised bed which gets a reasonable amount of light although it is behind a garden building. The small plot is encased in decking boards. As the plants grew I made up another level of boards and started earthing up the plants with a mixture of soil and compost from B&Q. They have been prefectly fine as I have been doing this over a couple of weeks. Yesterday morning the potatoes were wonderful, dark green and healthy. By the evening they looked as if they had been sprayed with weedkiller or something. the change was so dramatic. They had mostly keeled over exposing anaemic looking lower leaves. the whole thing now looked like a bedraggled mess. We watered them copiously and this morning although a bit better they are still not back to their previous condition. They have not been fed, only watered occasionally and earthed up but the stems are very long, about 3 feet and they are just coming into bud ready to flower. The potatoes were planted rather close together I will admit. Help !!!

[zazen999]

They might be ready to harvest then. Have you had a furtle?

Or they might well just have had too much rain and fallen over as the leaves are too heavy for them.

[Bigmallly]

Or they might well just have had too much rain and fallen over as the leaves are too heavy for them.

Was just thinking the same, as some of mine are a little heavy and want to kiss the floor.

[Nykied]

Fallen stalks on potatoes in pots - help

I have three of those big potato grow bags filled with compost and potatoes. They were going great guns until this last week, when the stems have started to wilt and fall over.

There are no signs of flowers so what does this mean? Over-watering, under-watering, pests?

[chris]

Has it rained a lot around your area? I was just reading another post, and It hink it was zazen999 that mentioned heavy rain could cause the stems to bend as the leaves were too heavy due to the water on them.

If they're dying off, it could mean that they're ready to harvest too - are they earlies?

[Nykied]

Yes, they're earlies. Not sure when I planted them but I can check in my Filofax tonight.

I forgot to say that they're not wilted as such, just bent over, so it could be because of the rain as it has rained a lot here recently.

[jacob]

Apologies for jumping in on this thread, but some of mine are looking alarmingly tall and I'm pondering whether or not to nip off the top to encourage them to bush (in a kind of anti-armpitting) in order to stop them falling over. I'm sure there was discussion on this last year, but I can't find it.

Thoughts?

(btw, first earlies might well be ready now, although in my experience they tend to yellow and die, rather than collapse.)

[Jax]

I think its due to the weather, we have one of our first earlies doing the same. ive checked for tatos and they are all tiny tiny so Im presuming the up and down weather is affecting them

[gojiberry]

Potato tops falling over is nothing to worry about as long as the leaves still look healthy. One of my bags had some terrible looking tops, yellow anemic and falling over due mainly to not being looked after very well, however they gave me 4.5 lb of very nice new potatoes the other day.

Ian

[solway cropper]

Don't worry, some of mine in sacks got battered and broken by high winds and they just sprouted new shoots. Hasn't affected the tubers underneath.

[arthur billet]

Potato mystery partially alleviated

All this took place over a timespan of say 4 hours. As I said we watered them a lot yesterday evening then this morning they looked better. So maybe there wasn't enough water in the soil.
I think that must have been it because when you think about it potatoes consist very heavily of water.
I have straightened them up and done a bit more mowling up and they look better than they did yesterday but still not pristine as they once were.
Incidentally, I wonder if the Irish had put too much store by potatoes in the 1840's. They dont seem that reliable a crop to my amateur eyes. To base one's whole way of life on them, as they did, seems to have been a mistake after what I have just experienced !

[selfraising]

Just to say a lot of mine have bent over due to high winds, I think. But first earlies should be ready soon, I had some for tea last night

[Two_Sheds]

I have ...done a bit more mowling up

I've never heard that before. Is it colloquial for earthing up?

[Bigmallly]

I've never heard that before. Is it colloquial for earthing up?

It sounds like it TS, I like it.........mowling, it has a ring to it....

[OllieMartin]

It sounds like it TS, I like it.........mowling, it has a ring to it....

Think we might have a new word in our collective lexicon.