Is it game over for my frost hit potatoes?

Morning all,

A few nights back I covered my potatoes with some of that hort fleece (its the type that seems to be easily ripped apart) and the wind must have blown the cover and so upon checking my potatoes the next morning frost had hit them.

Most of the leaves are blackish but there are several leaves on each plant that have not been troubled.

Is it the end for the potatoes? What can I do? Should I cut off the damaged leaves?

Thanks for your replies.

Samuel

 

They will be fine. The tops will have been killed, they will sprout again from below, that delays things and uses up energy reserves so best avoided.

Earthing them up is better - with the leaves under ground the frost won't get to them. Or cover with straw / grass clippings (not if you have used selective weed killer or Weed & Feed on the lawn). Weigh fleece down with stones / bricks etc. but its second-best to covering as above because it will only keep a bit of frost off them; we can, and do - albeit only once a decade or so- get -5C in May

Or plant them later (next year ). I only plant a few at the early date, then fewer to have to protect, the rest go in later so they are small and easier to protect if there is a late frost

 

I think they'll be fine as Kristen says. The only thing I'd add is that I'd probably cut off and dispose of any clearly dead or damaged bits. Potatoes are vulnerable to a number of horrible diseases, so I don't think it would be a good idea to have dead or severely weakened bits of plant exposed to all the airborne fungal spores that will be about once the weather warms up.

 

I start planting my seed potatoes end of March into April, 6-8 in deep then I mound the soil over the top, this way the first earthing up is already done. I'll start to see leaves in a few weeks time, which in general misses most frosts. I'll let them grow to around 6 in then earth up again OR if a frost is predicted.

You must have planted out quite early and there in no advantage in doing this as the soil needs to warm first before growth can begin.

If you get up early enough you can also "wash" frost off plants with a hose pipe, for this to be successful you need to do it before the sun gets up and on the plants. I was told this a number of years ago and have done it only the once (I planted mid march that year) where it appeared to work fine on my plot but the plot next door suffered the blackened leaves. The science behind this is the cells freeze in the plants then these frozen cells magnify the suns rays to burn the plant.

How true that is I do not know, but it worked once for me a couple of years ago, now I just earth up instead.

Steve...

 

I have read that commercial growers often turn on a water spray if frost is coming, with the science being that as water traps a lot of heat, it prevents any sudden change of temperature. As for the frost magnifying the sun, possible, but the explanation I read was that the sudden change in temperature causes a pressure difference between the cells that are still frozen and the ones that have thawed, so that the frozen ones rupture.