"David Rogers" wrote in reply to ...
Steve who wrote
I had a mail from my sister today, who is not an allotmenteer, but she
says
she saw Mr Flowerdew advising the removal of the flowers on potato
plants to
improve the yield.

Anyone see this?
Tried it?
Did it work?

I didn't see this, but the potatoes I grow on my allotment (Kestrels)
never seem to produce more than the odd flower. I wait for the
appearence of the flowers, as the books tell you to do, before I start
looking for "new potatoes", and by the time I've convinced myself that
there might be something there, they're massive! Any ideas why they
don't flower, but crop heavily nonetheless?

First, Steve, we used to religiously remove all flowers on our spuds but one
year were unable to and didn't see any change in the crop so we don't bother
now, we just enjoy the flowers, it's fascinating how each variety has
different coloured flowers.

Now, David, we also grow the second early Kestrals and ours never flower
much either, must be the variety. Personally we leave ours to die back like
main crops and then dig and use them before the main crops are ready.

--
Regards
Bob
in Runnymede, 17miles west of London, UK