Rod wrote:
"Ed" ex@directory wrote in message
...
A few guys at my allotment site have recently cut the haulms off
their maincrop potatoes. They give two reasons for this practice:

Firstly, it considerably reduces the risk of infection by blight.
Secondly, it prevents nutrients and plant energy going into the
production of the potato fruit/seeds.

As this is my first year at growing potatoes , I would welcome any
advice/comments as to cutting the haulms off at this time of year
and leaving the tubers in the ground until harvest time.

Ed
(SE England)

The advice to remove haulms and leave the spuds in is widespread and
it is also pointless and wrong. If you do that you expose the tubers
near the surface to more light and they go green. Also if you look at
those tubers now you'll see little slug damage, leave 'em in and the
slugs will have a field day. The farmer neighbouring here had 300
acres for McCains and he's lifted those over the last couple of weeks.
I've just finished ours on the veg plot and what a crop it is - best
I've seen in years.

That may be true, but I understand that it toughens the skins to help in
storing. I've noticed that local farmer cut his off last week, so I
followed suit. Last year I left mine on the surface of the ground to dry
our, left them too long, so a lot of green. :-((

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