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Last year’s potato plants have popped up!

mwaltermwalter Posts: 18
edited April 2022 in Problem solving
Good afternoon all, a quick question if I may; last year I bought chitting potatoes Maris Piper main crop and they did well, we enjoyed a good crop. I thought I had dug them all
out last winter but 3 plants have regrown in my raised bed.  Shall I leave them to grow and will they crop this year?  See pic attached.  Many thanks. 

Posts

  • mwaltermwalter Posts: 18

  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    These are known as “volunteers”.  The usual advice is to dig them up as they are likely to be weak plants that don’t produce a great crop.  They can also harbour viruses that might cause problems for future potato crops grown in that ground.
  • mwaltermwalter Posts: 18
    Oh. OK thanks for  the advice 🐥.  They are growing in the wrong place as well, but I was prepared to work round them if it was worth it.  They will be gone by sunset! Thanks 👍🏻
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    Don't dig them up. We have been harvesting volunteers like that for the last 30 years or more and never seen any sign of virus, or reduced cropping or anything other than freeby tubers galore.
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    I've had them before. When there was room I left them and harvested them, an extra bonus. I've read that they can harbour viruses, but they didn't.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841
    I think the perception that they produce weak plants and poor harvests is related to the size of the volunteer seed potato - it is mainly the small tubers which get missed from last year's harvest. However I still manage to unearth some big ones despite having dug over the ground several times the previous year.
  • chickychicky Posts: 10,410
    edited April 2022
    That’s what an RHS education does for you …..I see potential viruses lurking around every corner 🤣🤣🤣
  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    You're right though, @chicky, they can harbour blight. Depends if your potatoes got it last year.
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    Agree with @Palustris . We get volunteers that often produce a better harvest than the originals. I do hear what others have said about blight but then thankfully we haven't had it so are prepared to let the potatoes continue to grow.
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    We have never found blight on the volunteers, probably because they grow and produce before the Blight season begins.
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