Harvesting Maincrop Now.

Blowin · Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 2:18 pm Post subject: Harvesting Maincrop Now.

A couple of weeks ago the haulm on one of my spuds keeled over and withered into a slushy mess so, fearing blight, I took off all the damaged foliage down to ground level and got rid of it.

I then wondered whether there were any viable spuds underneath so I dug the root up and got quite a good handful of tubers. The rest of the crop looks nice and healthy butm y question is, what would happen if I harvested the lot NOW and put them into sacks for storage in the normal way? My motive is to avoid pumping more Dithane into bot them and my soil.

michael brenock · Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 8:27 pm Post subject:

if potatoes are not fully grown and matured at the time of digging then they will not store well. Potatoes must develop a storage skin and the flesh must also be mature. If you harvest them now they will shrivel and be wasted in store. Allow them to grow as large as possible and even after the stalks have died down allow some few weeks for the skin to cure before harvesting and storing them in the dark.
michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired)

Blowin · Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:37 am Post subject:

Thanks, Michael. That's the info I needed.