Potato Blight and Thunderstorm Dangers - when to harvest..

joewyand · August 2020

Hi Folks
I've recently chopped all potato plants down, after discovering the Blight had set in. They'd been in the ground since mid May, so approaching 12 weeks now. The tubers I've looked at seemed fine, so I decided to leave them in, observe them and harvest steadily, and take them all up if I had to.

We had a huge thunderstorm last night.

Will such a deluge start to rot the potatoes even more now they have no foliage or ability to use that water?
I suspect the extra water will speeden up the blight.

Am I foolish to leave them in any longer? Should I be rushing to dig them up? There are 25 plants there.
I had hoped the longer I could leave them to mature in the ground, the thicker the skins, and the longer they would keep.

Any advice?

thanks, Joe

nick615 · August 2020

The general rule is to harvest 14 weeks after sowing. I'm told cutting off the foliage helps firm up the skins, but I can't see a storm having any disastrous effect. However, if you're worried, next week will be 13 weeks, i.e.half way to the normal date, so gather them then or do a third of them and let what you find govern what you do with the rest.

Potato Blight and Thunderstorm Dangers - when to harvest..

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