Potatoes

fifi35

Hi,  lots of potato plants have appeared in my raised bed.  They must be unleft tubers from last year or some that maybe was in the compost.  Anyway, they have totally taken over my raised bed.  Can I chop the stems and leaves down to give some of my other veg room to breath or should I just pull some of the potato plants up before they are read and throw them away.

goldfinches

AFAIK potato plants don't need all of their lower leaves and you can keep earthing them up to promote more root development so I suggest you try trimming off all but the topmost crown from two or three to let the light get to your other plants, if the spuds survive then trim the others too.

LessImpecunious

goldfinches said:

AFAIK potato plants don't need all of their lower leaves and you can keep earthing them up to promote more root development so I suggest you try trimming off all but the topmost crown from two or three to let the light get to your other plants, if the spuds survive then trim the others too.

Apparently the earthing up thing doesn't really work, though it is a widely propagated myth! (see https://www.cultivariable.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-indeterminate-potatoes/?fbclid=IwAR0ndSgwFIxTz4SpuLPjtksVSf5RVwwbd1CTwoOjZc6glN2T0BkjbXHofkg) - just stops tubers going green. Plus, if you cut the leaves off you'll reduce any energy going to the tubers, so will get a reduced crop - so the worst of both worlds... @fifi35 do you know what the potatoes you grew before were? - if earlies they might be ready to harvest quite soon anyhow... Whether to pull up now or not depends how much you'd like a bonus crop or not want to risk damaging whatever else you're growing there...

fifi35

Hi thank you for the info.  I'm not sure what the tubers are.  They haven't flowered yet.  I guess I'll just leave them and see what happens.

droopsnoot

I've also got loads of these. I cleared the vegetable patch "thoroughly" and then planted three rows of potatoes, two of onions and lettuce, and pretty much the entire patch is covered in potato plants. I've got four or five lettuce, and no onions (other than the ones growing between two paving stones). I wouldn't mind so much, but I don't really want a lot of potatoes, to the extent that I've no idea why I planted even the three rows that I did.