Flailing too high will leave long vine stems and increase regrowth but regrowth has not been documented as a problem in Idaho. Regrowth also occurs when vines are killed with chemicals. When vines are flailed, harvesters need to be equipped with blowers to remove he many small pieces of vines. Pulling tends to bring tubers out of the ground, so most models have skids that hold tubers in the ground and seal the soil. Pulling tends to cause a small increase in specific gravity compared to other vine killing methods.
Rollers crush stems and flatten vines to increase the rate of dying.
Our results demonstrate that vine rolling increased the rate of vine kill up to 9 percent with or without chemical application. Vine rolling can also aid spray effectiveness by reducing canopy thickness and thus making chemical coverage more uniform. Vine rolling is recommended in combination with chemical application but not as a sole treatment. Tuber yields were found to increase about 5 cwt per acre per day at the first of September in southeastern Idaho when averaged over several experiments. Therefore, higher yields will almost always result from delayed or no vine kill.