Potato blight

elsien

I've never heard of a Smith Period before -you learn something new......

mardatha

Me neither and I wish I hadnt really LOL !!

Patchwork_Quilt

The advice from my allotment neighbour, who has been there for ever, is to cut the leaves off and leave the potatoes in the ground. However, he says they are at risk of slugs at the moment so I used slug pellets (not sure it will help if the slugs are underground but it's worth a try)

Primrose

Marthada - I'm not in a blight area (yet !!) but I started spraying with Dithane yesterday as a precautionary measure, even though I would much prefer to grow organically. But I can't afford to lose 30 tomato plants and blight, when it strikes, can devastate an entire crop in a couple of days. For anybody who doesn't know what it is Dithane is a powder which you buy from Garden Centres, (normally about 5 sachets to a pack). Each sachet is dissolved in about 1.5 litres of water and then sprayed on the plants. It doesn't guarantee 100% against blight but last year I started spraying on July 19th and although blight did arrive in my garden I only lost about half dozen tomatoes. There was a little blight damage on some tomato stems and leaves but spraying kept it in check. Be careful not to spray in bright sunlight or on a windy day. I use one an empty empty Dettol hand spray bacterial cleaner as my spray gun which works perfectly well and keep the remainder of my made-up blight mixture in an empty lemonade bottle, carefully labelled. If you're not sure what blight looks like, it's brown patches on leaves and tomato stems which gradually increase in length and size until the whole plant dies . If you try Googling "Photographs of tomato blight" you'll probably get some good illustrations of what to look for but once blight spores start whizzing around the country, you need to check your plants daily. It really can spread that quickly.

mardatha

Not strictly gardening-but how do you store the potatoes once you've dug them up ?

Farway

mardatha wrote: »

Not strictly gardening-but how do you store the potatoes once you've dug them up ?

Depending how many you have, strong brown paper sacks in a cool garage or shed [watch out for rodents]

If loads, make a clamp but this needs space

Do not store in palstic or they will sweat & rot

Primrose

IF you haven't got a proper brown paper potato sack, an old pillowcase will do or some of those 'save the planet' cotton bags which charities are handing out these days. but store them in a cool shed or garage where the air is dry and not it a humid place. You can leave the earth residues on if you wish as that will help to protect them. Just make sure they're protected from daylight otherwise they'll turn green and start sprouting.

mardatha

ok sorted ta !

Little_Mama

We've been storing in pillowcases and leaving a bit of the mud on them, read somewhere that it was a good idea, and so far all has been good.

Like you we've had very dodgy potato leaves and, having lost last year's tomato crop to blight, I've become paranoid and started pulling leaves off what are, probably, quite healthy plants.......potatoes have been fine and am harvesting some Gartenperle Toms at mo. Hot weather then deluge hasn't helped the italian toms I'm growing, have had some split, also found a couple with brown marks on them but the rest of the plant was ok (in terms of leaves & fruit).....am still deciding what to do with that one, sacrifice one for the benefit of the other 20.......

And I thought this was going to be a stress free hobby! :rotfl:

LM

mary-op

Just went to sign up on Blightwatch site but it looks as if you have to be a professional grower
Is that right or is there another site for us 'back garden growers' ?