If the tops are dying off you might as well harvest them. I don't know how dead "dying off" is to you; you might get another couple of weeks out of them, but I don't think it will make any difference to the spuds. I grow Yukon Gold too and I find it to be an early maturing variety. (Actually IMHO it is the best all-round potato for home growing).

I keep mine in a cool pantry, in the dark, in a cardboard box. I actually left the little nubbin potatoes all winter last year, and this spring they were soft and sprouting but not rotten, and I was able to plant them and not buy seed potatoes! Yukon Gold is a particularly hard (starchy) variety and keeps well. You might notice they are actually better eating after a couple of months of storage because they are so hard at first.

Congrats on your pioneer potato efforts!

You can harvest anytime between now and September. What I do is dig the potato and let them dry for a few hours, then brush the dirt off and store in pails in my basement. I have a small room for storage that they stay in till I use them.

Its a good idea to check through them every now and then to see if any are rotting .....if some are, remove them, and the rest should still be fine.

Happy Gardening,
Sierra

Thank you very much. I follow along closely since joining last year. I am learning a lot. I am a new gardener who has taken to it like a duck to water. I wish I could win the lotto so I could hang out in my kitchen garden all day - instead of sitting in my offcie....

Potatoes stay best when kept in the ground as long as you can.

You can most likely leave them in, until the canes all dry up.
Konrad

Agree with Konrad. At this time of year I dig only what I need for a meal. The rest stay in the ground until late October...dig them just before the ground freezes. That way they are very cold when they go into storage....and last until about July of the following year.
Jan