Potatoes looking sick

[LtGrimms]

Hello, my potatoes have recently started to wilt and look like they're dying. This is my first time growing potatoes (or much of anything) so I thought I'd ask here and see if anyone had any ideas.

My potatoes are growing in a mix of mulch, potting mix and compost in big pots (probably around 12-15 gallon pots). I have fertilized them a couple times with 'worm castings'.

I have three pots, each with a different type of potato. The pot that looks the worst was the pot of old potatoes from the grocery store (not actual 'seed potatoes like the other two) but the other pots are starting to look a little rough as well. Each pot had about 5 full 'potatoes used to start them.

I've included a few pictures of my potatoes below. The first two are from this morning, the last two are from about a week ago.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Have they flowered? They do look a bit like mature plants

Consider, they like the sun on the top of the plant, but the roots like cool and damp, one of the commonest problems people have is with black pots in the sun a, getting too hot. b, getting too dry. I stand white polystyrene round them and stand them in a tray that always has a little water in the bottom.

 

[LtGrimms]

Thanks for the tip. This sounds like it could be part of the problem as it's just starting to get quite hot around here. I'll try setting something up to shield the pots from the sun.

I don't think they ever flowered though.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Normally they flower, then die down , and then you have your potatoes. So if you are not sure whether they flowered take the most died down one and carefully slide it out of the pot and see if you have potatoes underneath. Some people do this, carefully harvest the largest, and then slide it back in to go on growing.