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Should i reduce the tops on my potatoes?
HyppyByker
Posts: 146
in Fruit & veg
I'm growing Charlottes in a raised bed and have to growth about 2ft tall which has started flowering.
I pulled up 1 plant which had a grand totalbof 2 decent sized tatties and a couple of immature ones.
Should i reduce the tops for a better crop?
0
Posts
No - leave the leaves alone... the leaves are the factory of the plant, producing the sugars/starch which are needed to form the potatoes.
Have you been earthing the potatoes up?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
i did it nce ut ran out of space in the box, thought i'd planted them deep though. When should i harvest?
It's not really a case of planting deep ... when you pile earth up around the stems those stems produce more potatoes, thus increasing your crop.
If they have flowers then harvest from now onwards ....... don't just pull the plants up, use a garden fork and lift them gently from about a foot away from the plant ... with any luck there should be potatoes in the soil around the plant..
http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-lift-early-potatoes/
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanx you're always so helpful and knowledgeable ☺
It's nice to share our gardening, and at the moment I'm on the sofa with a broken foot, so I've got time on my hands
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Oh dear Dove how did you do that, as for leaves, YES as Dove says leaf them alone (geddit)
NannyBeach ... I've got a dodgy knee and it gave way and I crashed to the ground in the garden ... I landed on and wrecked the Hesperis
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Ouch! Get well soon XXX
I know the feeling I have that in both knees they just give way at any time and your soon on the deck,I have had it since I was in my mid thirties and a consultant at the time said I might be in a wheelchair by the time I was fifty, and I am now seventy five and still going I think gardening keeps you fit most of the time.Its to do with working on a farm all of my working life I am afraid its worn out knee joints so they tell me.Hope you will soon be on the go again. Regards Pete
Thats kind of you. Thanks
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.