Damage to Spuds Foliage!

Orange_King

Yesterday the wind was gusting quite a bit resulting in the potato plants looking very straggly and having some of the shoots broken off.

Does this impact on the crop beneath the soil at all if the greenery above dies off too early in the season?

TonyMMM

Have you been earthing them up ...this helps to support the foliage (and gives a bigger crop) ?

skelly01

Provided you have not loast too much of the foilage then it should be OK. You may well have a reduced yield as the green foilage diverts energy to the developing spuds.
If you haven't already, get them earthed up as this supports them and also improves yield. It also prevents green potatoes that are near the surface.

Waterlily24

Some of the tops of our potatoes went black due to the frost we think. They now seem to be OK, new top growth looks lovely and green so hopefully they'll be OK. Took quite a long time to revive though.

Hope yours will be OK too.

Orange_King

Yes, extra compost etc was put into the bags so they are now almost filled to the brim - the recent growth spurt has probably not helped! I will have to take another look and ensure that the contents are compacted and keep my fingers crossed.

I was thinking of putting some wire along the front to give the plants some protection too.