Reasons why a potato plant would go flop

[Mrs Moustoir]

I'm growing most of my early spuds through weed surpressing membrane again this year. Just don't have time to phaff around with the earthing up and weeding (my excuse and I'm sticking to it! ). I find it keeps the ground moist around the plants and I've been watering once a week. Probably a slug holiday camp too but anyway...

Had a panic in the week when one of the plants outside the membrane turned yellow and keeled over. Thought it might be early blight but I'm now convinced it is just lack of water. Dug it up and spuds (variety - Charlotte) are marble sized compared to egg size plus from the mulched plants.

Mulched plants are also much larger.

[Millymollymandy]

How do you dig the spuds up if they are growing through membrane - I mean did you make a hole in the membrane and plant the spud sets through that?

Mine aren't collapsing through lack of water - it is something else. I've had seriously dry spuds before and they never went yellow and flopped. These are fairly well watered, still not enough to keep the scab off but if I ever got a scab free harvest I wouldn't know what to do with myself.

[MKG]

From Googling for potato problems ...

Problem: Die-back
Affected Area: Entire plant

Description: Vines whither and tops partially die. Plant may die.

Control: Increase fertilization. Irrigate early in the day, but avoid excessive water.

It still looks odd as your plants seem to be very selective in where they flop, but I suppose that it is possible that you have very localised soil exhaustion. Maybe???

Mike

[Millymollymandy]

I don't think it's that either as I fertilised that plot with my nice organic fertiliser then Farmer Giles drove by on his tractor and did it again (with nice non organic fertiliser) whilst doing his field next door.

I have three varieties of spuds growing and the only ones that have been affected are the freebie spuds from the garden centre.

[Odsox]

the only ones that have been affected are the freebie spuds from the garden centre.

So there really is no such thing as a free lunch then

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?OGLPR 27 June 2010 Potato Patch

Update on Growth to date.
Growth from 2 May 2010 until 27 June 2010. The potato plants are 36 inches tall, with maximum vegetation exposed to the sun. no water has been applied other than normal rainfall.There are a few immature potato bugs, which get squashed daily. I am looking forward to the harvest with some high expectations of quality and quantity. There are about 70 plants and each row is a different variety. Russian Blue, Agria, Viking, Alaskan Sweetheart, and Chieftain are the varieties. The Russian Blue and Chieftain have been grown in previous years.

[pigchicks]

This has happened to mine too - I'm not sure it is anything to do with watering as I have neglected my crop of golden wonders and they are about 1.5 meters high and really lush. However my second earlies are looking rather yellow and limp and I watered them more than any others. However the potato crops seem fine but I think they can't be benefitting much from such a woeful growth above ground - I think I may harvest and clamp.

[Odsox]

However my second earlies are looking rather yellow and limp

Depending on where you live pigchicks, they could be coming to the end of their natural life and ready to harvest.
What's left of my first earlies are now dead as a dodo and my second earlies are just starting to go yellow in places, nothing wrong with them, it just means I ought to get stuck in and finish eating the earlies.

Anyway, welcome to Ish.

[Millymollymandy]

They sound ready to me too and my first earlies are starting to go over but the 2nd earlies are still OK - that's the ones that didn't get hit by sudden droop syndrome! Oh I love harvesting new potatoes but it's very annoying when your fork goes through one!

[Ratsny]

My husband is doing research on this at Lincoln University in NZ...
There is a new disease (going global ) that is transported by an insect called a psyllid (kind of like an aphid) that is attacking potatoes and same type plants (eg toms). It causes die back and makes the tubers inedible. If unsure, take a slice of the potato and fry it in oil - if it comes up stripey then it is likely to be this disease.

Had a talk to Dean about this again, he says it doesn't actually make the spuds inedible, just unappetising looking with brown bits and they tend to be small if the plant has been affected early in the season. It is devastating commercial crops because they can't sell small brown stripy fries.

Niche market?

[Millymollymandy]

I don't see why not as people are happily eating white beetroot and purple carrots and black tomatoes.....