Potatoes - are they safe in the soil for now?

lil_me

I forgot to dig them up and the leaves are yellowed/dying. House sitter not able to do them for me. Will they be ok left in the soil in planters or will they rot?

I could do it now but it is dark and got no outside lights

Thanks you

valk_scot

You should get them out of the ground fairly soon. Even in planters they can get a lot of slug damage and rot. There's absolutely no advantage to leaving them out now...they won't grow any more...and quite a lot of reasons to lift them.

Sally_A

Blummin' hope so, I'm hardly a third through my spuds yet - and still on the Lady Christl's that are allegedly first earlies (they are the size of soup tins), 2 rows of Charlottes next, and finally 2 rows of Sante.

I'll only dig them up if blight looms - and I've already had 5 blightwatch warnings this year.

Sante are supposedly blight resistant.

lil_me

Thanks for the replies

What's blight ? Sorry I'm no green fingers, my 10 year old is super keen and plants everything

Sally_A

Blight is an air borne disease that can wipe out tomatoes and spuds overnight.

You may be lucky with spuds if you cut the haulms down (ie the leaves and stems), but if you don't the spores can get into the soil and make the tubers go manky.

It occurs in warm damp situations, and the first signs are brown blotches on the leaves and stems - but don't get it mixed up with natural die back of potato haulms.

lil_me

Yuk that sounds horrible. I just googled a blight potato and I think he has had those a few years ago. They stank. I'll see if I can get them done before I leave tomorrow and sack them for when we get home. He'd be disappointed if they went to waste

Thanks again for the replies, I'm lost without his veg lessons where we use to live

He has some red ones and some erm no idea, he raids my cupboards for sprouting spuds