Potatoes Falling Over

[mags16]

This is my very first post on this forum!

I have lots of potatoes growing in potato bags. I staggered the planting so that I don't have all the spuds harvested at the same time.

Anyhow, my problem is that the largest plants are falling over and I am worried that they are going to break. They are very big and are flowering.

Any advice?

[tweacle]

Ive got potatoes in extremely large pots and have the same prob. All ive done is put some canes round the pots and tied a string round the plants to keep them together. If you got the potato bags that im thinking of just stick 4 canes in the edges and tie string.

[fromthecrowsnest]

Same here.

I have never had stems grow this tall before.

Potato stems are well over a metre high from their barrels, and so are those in the ground. I have only supported the barrel spuds. Those on the veg patch are mainly standing, just a few fallen over and they haven't snapped off, but are growing up again.

I like to harvest potatoes when the stems are showing signs of dying down.

[mags16]

They are right beside a wall and I turned the bags around so that the wall is supporting the drooping stems. If they continue to fall over, I'll get the bamboo canes out to support them.

Thanks for the replies. I'm dying to harvest them but am making myself wait 'til the plant start to die off.

[Ian240356]

I had this trouble many years ago, but I figured out what was wrong and so, it does not happen any more.

Did you use big seed potatoes ?

A spud is almost pure carbohydrate, and when the shoots reach the surface they just keep going. Firstly to where you want them to be, say 24", then higher still.

You might want the bigger seed potatoes if your containers were very deep, like the old dustbins we used to have. But if your containers are 24" or less, you should have used smaller seed, and cut the larger ones in half, maybe thirds.

For now you will just need to get on with supporting the haulm anyway you can. Try bamboo sticks, good luck. Mine are just dandy.