What to you mean by they will need to be harvested? I normally harvest when the plants are mostly dead, but Fedco states the following - which leads me to believe there is a wide (3 week) window for harvesting them. "Potato plants are mature when the vines start to senesce, or die back and fall over. You may cut, mow, flame-kill or allow them to die naturally. Leave tubers in the ground for 14–21 days after the vines are dead before digging to give the skin time to “set,” and to prevent transmission of blight spores from foliage to tubers."

Hope that helps.

Some leave them in till the Fall. There is no "have to be harvested" time.

Dave

Easiest before snow and frozen ground, usually November for me. I like to store them under ground as long as possible.

Potatoes can rot in the ground if the soil is both very hot and wet but that shouldn't be a problem for you unless you can't turn the water to the potato beds off on your drip system. I usually need to harvest mine pretty quickly after the tops die off because I need the space for things like winter squash, fall carrots and leeks.

I dug the rest of my Yukon Gold this weekend and the skins were already well cured. So tasty!

LoneJack - I THINK the soaker hose that runs down the potato bed is also used by the bean row. I could certainly pull the hose off of the spuds if I need to use some in-ground storage. All this talk of using them until they're needed is reminding me that I've been planting for a Fall crop the last several years (re-using the same space spring and fall). Soooo...I'd better not get too used to the idea of in-ground storage. Such a dilemma!

Only caveat. Those of us who have voles or field mice have to race them to the potatoes.

Good to see everyone's thoughts on this, my YGs and Kenny Becks are blooming and a little post bloom now, the plants have peaked but are still going strong for the most part. When I saw the ground/mounds cracking open last week I watered them down for the last time and tossed on another shovel of soil to fill any mound cracks to block any possible light reaching the spuds. Once the tops dieback (esp during this heat wave here in Va and elsewhere) I'll leave them be to cure as long as possible and dig them before the next predicted several inches of rain, it seems the norn lately.