It’s only my second season growing potatoes. Grocery store red, no idea the actual variety. I have flowers forming everywhere- does everyone let them flower? I let them go last fall, but want to hear what I should actually be doing. Internet seems divided.
ignore flowers on potatoes. Most varieties produce a few flowers and some will set fruit. The fruit does not interfere with production of potatoes. You can save seed from the fruits and grow them similar to tomatoes or peppers.
Be aware they may not reproduce true to seed if you start them that way, but nothing hurt by them setting fruit. Based on my modest experiences; just let them do their thing (maybe hill them up a time or two early on) and if alm goes well, once they finish fruiting and die back later in the summer enjoy yourself some fresh tubers.
I can say that I’ve been growing potatoes for decades, and I’ve never removed the flowers; when potatoes start to flower, it’s a good indication that tubers are also forming; here where I grow them, the only concerns are saving the potatoes from blight and from the Colorado potato beetle.
Great, thank you all!