When to harvest and store early potatoes?

[Bonestobones]

My early potatoes are ready to harvest. They are yellow on top. The RHS recommends cutting the plant and then waiting 10 days to dig them up. I'm happy to do this but do I need to dig them all up and then store them? I was going to put in some plastic crates and store in the garage. Is that ok?

Just to add this is from an allotment not a garden so I have a lot! They won't be used in a couple of weeks more likely a few months if they'll last that long hence why I wonder if I can leave them in the ground?

I would leave them in the ground, and harvest them when you need them. In my experience earlies don't store very well. Haven't seen that tip about cutting the foliage before, I'm intrigued now!

I'm guessing you'd leave the foliage on top then?

Thank you for your reply. I'll leave them in the ground.

In my experience earlies don't store. Dig up as required and eat within a few days to a week. The longer you leave earlies in, the bigger they grow. Potentially risky depending on the variety. Main crop spuds are usually left in the ground until the tops die down then lifted and dried in the sun for a few hours before bagging and storing. Earlies don't have the skin for storing...they are a bit wussy like that!

I would leave the foliage on, but you could always do an experiment with some of them and see if cutting it off makes a difference.

I'm going up tomorrow so I'll dig some up, cut some foliage and leave the rest on. To see what happens if anything at all.