The message
from Pam Moore contains these words:

Has anyone tried taking the flowers off the potato plants?
I heard or read that when the flowers develop the potatoes stop
swelling, and also that they need more water at that stage.
Any confirmation of that - or otherwise?

You've been misinformed.The potatoes still have a whole lot more
growing to do, long after the flowers finish. There's no need to pick
the flowers off.

When potatoes start flowering, that's the signal that you can start
fossicking around their roots for "baby" new potatoes. We harvested our
first picking on May 31st, tiny and delicious (early start from some
tubers inadvertently left in the ground last year). This year's crop,
planted on Easter Sunday 2004, are just starting to flower atm.

More water will undoubtedly make the tubers grow bigger, but if you
want big watery tasteless potatoes, they are very cheap in supermarkets
:-) I don't water spuds because I'd rather have taste than size.

Janet