I don't know anything about you potatoes, but I like your tractor. I wonder how many tractors made today will run for 50+ years?

My tractor is the same age I am. (63)

When it breaks, I'll have it repaired. The new ones just don't plow as well in our hard clay.

Ford 8N NOT FOR SALE!

Here is a link that might be useful: My garden tools

Johnny,

Nice tools!

With the potato plants that shriveled up, did the leaves shrivel while green or did they blacken and then shrivel up?

Dawn

OOOh.. nice new green paint jobs!

Dawn,

They shriveled while green. There was no discoloration.

It looked like the roots were cut off. However, I pulled two of them out and the roots looked normal.

ChickenCoupe,

They work so well I decided they are worth painting.

That planter is great! I even have the original books on them.

Hmmm. Do you have voles or field mice or something that could have eaten them off at the soil line? I would have asked about cutworms, but cannot imagine cutworms would be bothering potato plants this late in the year.

Since the foliage didn't discolor, I wouldn't think it was a disease.

Did all the plants get hit the same day or night? Or, is it a sort of ongoing thing?

I'm trying to remember if I've ever seen the same sort of thing happen to my potatoes, and I don't think I have. Usually if my foliage shrivels, it turns other colors either first or simultaneously, which helps with a diagnosis of the problem.

Today I found a nasturtium plant eaten off right at the ground. The plant wasn't eaten. The roots weren't eaten. It was just sawed right off just above the soil line. I'm guessing a little field mouse or a vole wanted water from the plant stem, so I put a pan of water in the garden hoping that if water is all it wants, it will drink from the pan....or fall into the pan and drown. I don't care either way if it puts a stop to the plant death. I couldn't find a cutworm in the soil anywhere around the plant. It would be so much easier to garden here if the wildlife would work with us instead of against us.

Oh, and I meant to ask: are all the potatoes with problems in the same area close to one another? Scattered around? One variety or more than one? I hate that you've lost those and hope you don't lose more.

Dawn

Dawn,

The potato plants were in a six foot strip. The plants all went down the same day.

I'm guessing you are correct. I did find one dead critter the day after I hilled my potatoes the second time. My row hipper (see tools) killed it and left it in the area between rows.

Those raised rows must be a big temptation for subterranean critters. It is so fluffy and easy to dig through.

Okra loves those raised rows too.