I live in Oklahoma in zone 7a. This is my second year of gardening, and I decided to plant potatoes. I planted Norkota and Purple Adirondack potatoes on April 20, The plants were beautiful! I dug them up Aug 6, after the tops had died. What a disappointment! Half the tubers had big patches of tan, slimy mush; some of the tubers were completely gone. The best way to describe it is to say that it looked like the potatoes were just dissoving! This was only in the Norkota; The Purple Adirondack wasn't affected at all. After I brought the potatoes in I lost even more, as some of the potatoes developed white moldy patches.almost immediately.

My husband thinks it was because I dug them too late, but I followed what it said to do on the internet. Could it be because I delayed digging them too long, or because I planted so late in the spring? Or is something else to blame?

I threw all the infected potatoes away, but is it safe to compost the vines? Thank you for any help you can give me.