potato vines laying down
 

Im growing yukon gold, seed potatoes were set at 10" apart. The vines are (were) 30 to 36" high, but now the wind has knocked them flat. Should I try to prop up the vines? It seems too shady and tangled under all that foliage and worried about disease spreading, although they look fine now. 10" spacing just doesnt seem far enough apart.

Hi there. 10 inches is very close for potato plants, I would say 18" would be the usual minimum spacing for early varieties. One of the reasons for hilling or "earthing up" potato plants is that it helps to support the plants as well as ensure that the potatoes produced are covered with soil to prevent greening.
Potato plants tend to be rather fragile and break off easily at the base if you try to prop them up at this point but you could give it a try with a test plant.. I think you might be better off mulching carefully by hand under each plant with dry grass clippings or straw and let them sprawl which would help decrease issues with fungus from branches laying down on the soil. If they are blooming, there should be some baby potatoes under there.
Perhaps try hilling and spacing a bit further apart next year.
KarenO

I've planted potatoes at 10" spacing and they did fine- helps to avoid getting bunkers with susceptible varieties. We always grow some Yukon Golds and even with 10" spacing we get some BIG potatoes. Twelve inches is the usual recommendation for spacing seed potato, I think.

The falling over happens at a certain point in the growth of the vines. Not much you can do but let them be. I've tried propping vines up with a FL weave type of setup just to see if it would help to reduce the spread of disease but it was way too much work and there weren't really noticeable improvements in the crop anyway.

I'm assuming that you already hilled them up a couple times if the vines were nearly 3' tall. Mine often don't reach 3' before they start to lie down. We get leaf disease every year here and it's nearly impossible to spray after the vines are down so I grow early varieties that size up quickly.

[QUOTE=kath;461251]I've planted potatoes at 10" spacing and they did fine- helps to avoid getting bunkers with susceptible varieties. We always grow some Yukon Golds and even with 10" spacing we get some BIG potatoes. Twelve inches is the usual recommendation for spacing seed potato, I think.

The falling over happens at a certain point in the growth of the vines. Not much you can do but let them be. I've tried propping vines up with a FL weave type of setup just to see if it would help to reduce the spread of disease but it was way too much work and there weren't really noticeable improvements in the crop anyway.

I'm assuming that you already hilled them up a couple times if the vines were nearly 3' tall. Mine often don't reach 3' before they start to lie down. We get leaf disease every year here and it's nearly impossible to spray after the vines are down so I grow early varieties that size up quickly.[/QUOTE]

Yes, they are heaped up pretty high with pine needles, leaves and soil. They were upright and looking extremely healthy till the wind knocked them down. Ive never grown potatoes in florida before. From what Ive read, it will likely get too hot before theyve had a chance to mature. But they do grow alot of potatoes in the town down the road from me. Mostly a red new potatoe and a white variety.

I haven't seen potato plant lay over. I've only grown Red LaSoda, Pontiac, and Red Norland in the past. Maybe they're different? Anyway, all the info I've read around in my neck of the woods suggests planting 12" apart. We usually get every other one out for new potatoes.