Wind and rain damage .

[nickdub]

looks like they'll be fine to me - plenty of green foliage - have another look over them and if any tops have snapped off completely, just put those on the compost heap.

BTW I usually keep some winter prunings back from stuff like hazel etc for use over the Summer with sweet-peas or whatever - it came in handy with my spuds too.

[Runtpuppy]

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...

Last year, my potato growth was getting a bit unruly, and growing too tall to support its own weight. Since it was flopping all over the place (no wind help needed!), I kinda lost my patience and chopped off all the stems.

Having done that, I almost immediately started regretting it, because all the websites I read said the tubers get their nutrition from the foliage and the more leaves the better.

However, a week later, all of them had green stalks growing again. Another couple of weeks and they were flopping all over the place again!

I wouldn't worry about it.

As for the humiliating pics and title, as long as you pay for their therapy, they shouldn't be too upset with you :P

[Earthgirl Jen]

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

Here's the before:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]81115[/ATTACH]

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:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]81116[/ATTACH]

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...

They look 'bloody lovely' to me

Well done on getting them all done. They are another one of those jobs that most of us weren't banking on... You watch over the next couple of days as the stems start to straighten themselves, in a couple of days you won't be able to see most of your string and sticks.

A plants job in life is to grow 'straight up' and reproduce , you've just given it a helping hand.

if you've snapped a few don't worry as someone else commented the plant will accommodate this.

Usually if you snap/break/pinch out the growing tip then what usually happens is the plants will produce 2 or sometimes 3 stems from the break and carry on.

I used to use it a lot to shape the plants I was selling years ago.

[self-contained]

In case anybody else ever worries they have destroyed their potatoes with a little bondage, here they are now:

[nickdub]

Those look good - new potato meals in plenty to come :-)

[Earthgirl Jen]

In case anybody else ever worries they have destroyed their potatoes with a little bondage, here they are now:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]81310[/ATTACH]

So pleased everyones advice worked, I bet you're chuffed.. You can't even see the string anymore..