Possible potato problem! 29 June 2007 at 6:58AM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Greenfingered MoneySaving 8 replies 627 views

soba

I've got the same problem with my potaotes, those in the ground and also in tubs. If it's potato blight do I need to pull them all out immediately? I just googled and came up with this -

If blight strikes: Initial blight symptoms may not spell disaster - the disease may not spread through the crop if the weather turns dry. However, if the crop is badly infected with around 10% of foliage killed, it is generally advisable to cut off and remove all potato foliage to help prevent spread to the tubers and to other potato and tomato plants. Removing the foliage obviously stops any further growth of the crop - highlighting the benefit of growing early maturing varieties, and early planting of maincrop varieties to ensure maximum growth before blight strikes. Don't harvest the crop for two to three weeks after defoliation. By then, tubers will have thicker skins and blight spores on the surface will have died.

Don't know what to do now, I don't want to lose my pots, it's my first effort at growing.

I know you lot will have the answer,
Thanks.

soba

Also, can I plant anything in the same ground when I do get the pots out? Don't want wasted space, equally I don't want to ruin whatever's planted next.
Thanks.

madhouseof4

I also wondered if I need to dig the tats up straight away, but I am worried about it spreading to my other potato plants. Besides, a friend told me that baby desirees are really nice, so I may just de-foliate and then dig up anyway.

I think that you can grow things in the same ground but they mustn't be from the potato or tomato family and certainly do not put potatoes in the same spot for 3 years or more as I am sure i read that blight spores can remain in the ground for a few years. I am sure someone more knowledgable will clarify shortly.

pollyskettle

Arghhhhh - just came on to see if anyone had the answer to what was on my tatties, and it appears to be the same problem. The lower part of the plant is fine but the upper plant has slightly worse (but quite tiny) black spots than the picture above, more of them and on a few more leaves, I'd hazzard a guess at about 20% of the foliage affected but the top centre only.

My poor potatoes

pollyskettle

Just found this :

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/showthread.php?p=112883

which looks more like the problem I have - may not be so mortifying after all!

madhouseof4

Thanks for posting that Polly. I am still not 100% sure from reading the thread if they have blight or not, we don't have large brown spota on any of the leaves, just lots of little ones. PLus, although they are maincrop, they were planted quite early and flowered weeks ago due t the crazy weather. If it is blight, it is probably too late to protect the rest of my crop, but I will move the container in question anyway, damage control and all that!

soba

Hi guys, I decided to cut all the foliage down, the stalks were kind of waterlogged, and seethrough. Don't know if that's how they usually are. So my pots are just sitting in very, very wet soil, and apparently I'm supposed to leave them there for three weeks. Will probably get some out before then, just to check them.

Dustykitten

I have got the spot problem on the plants I have which have been grown from sprouters but not from my seed international kidney. I dug up two IK plants today - not leaf problem just impatient. They had not even finished flowering but the pots were fab. I am going to continue harvesting mine; Small spuds are tasty and I'd rather that than get more problems in a few weeks time.

Zazen999

Soba
My earlies were cut down about 2 months ago, we had moved and i was growing them in containers. I put them in our courtyard area, and within a couple of weeks i was worried about all the spiders/bugs that had started making homes in the leaves.
I chopped 90% of the foliage down. I just springs back up again, just to a much lesser degree. I tried to leave one stalk for each potato, but that didn't necessarily happen with them all.
2 weeks ago, and yesterday i harvested absolutely fine new pots. they might have grown a bit more had i not chopped them back, but at least we weren't crawling in bugs for the last few weeks.
I am sure they will be fine.