Wind and rain damage .

[Ivanhoe]

First post on here as a new member
i have got a big problem in my veg plot at the moment after storm " Hector " my runner beans have been battered and both my early and main crop spuds have been flattened .
I am sure this question has been asked before is there any thing i could do to save my crops .

[Jay-ell]

Wait. The runners will perk up. If the tips are snapped off then they'll bush out and send out side shoots.

If the support was flattened then they will grow horizontal but it's harder to find the beans


P. S. Welcome to the vine

[nickdub]

Tidy up as best you can - reinforce your bean supports after getting them back upright - poke some twiggy stuff in the ground and use that to prop up your potato haulm - hope for the best :-)

[Small pumpkin]

Welcome to the vine Ivanhoe
I'm with you ! Hector though my veggie garden would look better flat.
Just give everything a bit of time. Most plants are resilient and will sort them selves out.
I will be trying to help my spuds stand up again. But not until the rain has stopped. They're just to heavy with water at the moment. I could just make thing worse.

[Bren In Pots]

Like the others have said tie in your beans with string and use canes and string to support your potatoes.

Welcome to the vine Ivanhoe and best of luck with your crops.

[burnie]

Welcome Ivanhoe(used to love that program back in the 1960's), I think a lot of us have similar problems, plenty of good advice already been passed on.

[Ivanhoe]

Thanks for the advice i have time today to get in garden for a few hours so will put these tips in to action .

[self-contained]

My container grown tatties all wound up flopped over too. As they are sitting on concrete, I don't think there's much chance of me setting up something that will hold them upright. Most of the stalks are intact though and the leaves look healthy, so I'll just have to see what happens. The main annoyance is that they have flopped into other containers, but I have pulled most of them out of the way.

[nickdub]

My container grown tatties all wound up flopped over too. As they are sitting on concrete, I don't think there's much chance of me setting up something that will hold them upright. Most of the stalks are intact though and the leaves look healthy, so I'll just have to see what happens. The main annoyance is that they have flopped into other containers, but I have pulled most of them out of the way.

I was in a similar place with some of mine, but have stuffed some twiggy hedge cuttings carefully down the inside of the bags, I was able to get them a bit more upright. depends I suppose on how much of a nuisance they are on the floor - I wouldn't have had room to walk between them if I hadn't done something. As has been said, using some string to help tie things up is also a possibility.

[Earthgirl Jen]

My container grown tatties all wound up flopped over too. As they are sitting on concrete, I don't think there's much chance of me setting up something that will hold them upright. Most of the stalks are intact though and the leaves look healthy, so I'll just have to see what happens. The main annoyance is that they have flopped into other containers, but I have pulled most of them out of the way.

Hi self-contained if it's any help all my potatoes are in pots, stood on pallets. I stood 4 or five sticks/thin bamboo canes or whatever you have to hand. I shoved them carefully down the inside edge of the pots and tied i.e.: grabbed the haulms and tied a piece of string around the whole lot at approx 2ft high ( mine were 3ft high and at 45degrees after the first night of wind) . It's held the potatoes in place. It took them a day to recover and despite the wind we are still having now they are now holding their own!

If yours are very bent then may I suggest you tie them at 1ft high on day one, 2ft high on day two and see how they respond.

The last think you want to try and avoid is broken stems...

I hope this makes sense?

[It never rains..it pours]

Welcome. My spuds were battered too but are lifting themselves well. Any that don't have gone to front of the harvesting selections. Suspect the 25mm of rain will do them alot of good looking at the 2 week forecast so not all bad. Hope your spuds lift too.

[Ivanhoe]

Spent a couple of hours outside today getting things sorted .
Got beens straghtened up and got my spuds back up using short bamboo canes and string took time but looks 10 times better .
Just have to wait now and see what happens .
Cheers for the help .

[Ivanhoe]

One last quick question regarding my spuds .
Now i have them stood back up again would it be worth while and ok to earth up more to add more support to them ?

[nickdub]

I would say yes, as long as you can give them some more time before harvest. Don't forget to adjust to giving them plenty of water if we get hot weather -spuds are mostly water and they won't do well if they get dry.

[self-contained]

Um. Well, I read the advice here. I'm not sure I did it right

Here's the before:



They don't look too bad in the picture, but they have completely flopped forwards threatening some of the stalks with snapping and keeping others well in contact with slug-central.

So I did what you said. Canes in the pots and then string. Lots of string. As in, loads and loads of string. As in ALL THE STRING. Please bear in mind that I did this on my own with only one pair of hands and one knee to hold everything in place while the tying happened. And I'm not feeling too well. And it was windy. And I was ready for my tea. And, it sort of ended up looking like this:



Have I destroyed my potatoes? I definitely snapped a few stalks along the way, but not too many and the biggest stalks seem to be intact.

Do you think my potatoes will ever forgive me?

And if they forgive me for tying them up, do you think they will forgive me for putting a picture of them in such a humiliating pose on the internet for everyone to see? Maybe I shouldn't have given the photo the title that I did...