English: A flail vine shredder. On maturity of the tubers the potato vines are killed in order to terminate growth and hence control tuber size, and to set skin, which reduces skinning and bruising during harvest, and shrinkage in storage. The most common method of vine killing is chemical desiccation. Sometimes a flail vine shredder is used, an implement consisting of varying knife lengths to accommodate the contours of the hill and furrow, producing a very rapid vine kill by mechanically removing all but about 15 centimetres of the vines – see File:Preparing for the harvest - geograph.org.uk - 982621.jpg – which are then removed by chemical desiccation.