HELP! My Potatos....

PerfectParadox

seem to be falling over.

I'm a bit of a novice gardener... infact novice everything, but with all the books and telly programs telling me that its worth a go.... I am

Im growing king edwards and maris piper, both in bags/pots
the maris piper appear to be ok, still standing upright

however the king edwards until the weekend were nice and bushy with leaves and strong stems and now they look.... like they have fallen over. they havents wilted, the leaves look the same, so do the stems, but the best word to describe them is that they have slumped, very dramatically, the extenet of which has broken a branch of leaves from stems all crushing down over the lip of the bag.....

can i save them? or have i in some extreme novice way killed them without even trying?!?

splodger_seedswapper

did you have heavy rain / strong winds over the weekend?

spud foliage will flop quite badly in those circumstances

if they are just splayed - but foliage still nice and green - don't worry about it - if they start to discolour and or start to die back - then they have been damaged

if they do start to die back - best thing to do is chop off the haulm and / or dig them up - but they may not be that well developed (depending on how long they have been growing)

if in doubt - post pics

PerfectParadox

thank you!
dont seem to be showing any rot as describe in my faithful library books and web searches just a bit.... well a bit like me after a long day at work is the best way to describe them. still green an strong i think....

accidently pulled up a stem while trying to get at the fallen leaves and the potatoes exsist but they are just a twinkling in a kitchen havests eye.

weather has been unpredicatble here.... wet, hot, hotter, overcast, flash flood, hale, burning sun again. they seemed to be ok until this weekend just gone when it was damp and then HOT and now back to english summer rain.

valk_scot

King Edwards are tall plants. Might be worth giving them a bit of support since they're in pots?

morg_monster

Some of mine always fall over. I find if I have to move them when they are over a certain size (they are in pots) they all flop. Particularly maincrop ones like my roosters. No wilting, no rotting. They flop onto the floor and then the tips grow up again. Looks really messy & takes up so much more space than necessary. Doesn't seem to affect yield as long as the flopped foliage gets sun still & not trampled on. I could stake them i guess. Perhaps a bamboo stick and a big loop of tights around the whole "bush".