Potato Harvest

[MumOfTheMoos]

I'm about to do a massive potato harvest on my allotment - I wanted to eat as I harvest but I'm only about 18 inches into my row of first earlies. I have a row of secon earlies and 2 rows of main crop.

I've bought a set of paper potato sacks to keep them in and plan to keep those in the garden shed as we get through them.

Would now be a good time to harvest my potatoes?

Plus, when I store them do I wash them first or is it ok to put them in with most of the soil removed but not washed?

Any other tips on storing potatoes?

Sounds good, so long as your garden shed is rodent free (and won't freeze).

Harvesting - you can certainly harvest maincrops now though they won't hurt to wait longer (though if it is very wet you may get more slug damage to the tubers).

If you have blight on the plants, cut the tops off, take them well away (and burn or dispose of) and wait for 10 days before harvesting for spores on the soil to die off.

I would definitely not wash them as you tend to damage the skin. I try to dig in drier weather if possible (ha ha) and leave the potatoes outside to dry off for a while. Then sort through them really carefully, taking any damaged tubers and putting them in a pile to eat straight away. Perfect tubers once nice and dry go into the sacks to store.

Its also well worth checking through your sacks every month or so to take out any tubers that are starting to rot before they infect any others.

Fab advice - thank you!