Potato Harvest - Prune or not?

[defender440]

This past summer a ground hog got to my taters & did quite a bit of damage to the foliage (mid-to late July..on vaca)...anyway, I thought my harvest would crash after that but in actuality the harvest was as good & maybe a bit better than prior years so..the question is.... would pruning back the plants actually increase yield? Maybe it makes the plant focus more on tubers instead of leaves? Any thoughts??

 

[digitS']

Only thoughts ... :

Potatoes have a season of growth and tubers begin to bulk up during the final weeks. For the early varieties that I grow, that stage is in July. Besides variety type, maturity would depend on when they are planted and the growing conditions.

I often get in a little bit of a hurry to harvest the potatoes. It would be best for the proper development of the skin if the foliage was cut a few weeks before the tubers are lifted. Stronger skin would better protect and improve the storage quality of the potatoes.

Your invading ground hog can't be trusted to do you any favors but he just might have shown up and limited his mischief in a way as to not have done much damage. Did he eat the foliage? I have been surprised when deer have done that.

Steve