Potato blight????

~Chameleon~

So, once they have finished flowering the spuds have reached the max size they're gonna get? I wonder why I've only got such a small crop then. Maybe I didn't manure the plot and/or water them enough

Still, it's a lesson learned that I can hopefully improve upon next year

Lotus-eater

No, once you cut off the haulms, they won't grow any more.

~Chameleon~

Ah right, I'm with you now

Before I go out and do the dastardly deed, whilst dodging the showers, did you look at the photos and is it definitely blight I've got? Don't want to risk losing the entire crop unless I'm absolutely certain

mary43

sorry to hear about your prob. - think I mentioned before, we got it last year on tomatos and potatos but managed to salvage some.......keeping a close watch this year but so far so good.

Mojisola

There's some good pictures for identification here -

https://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/potato.htm

~Chameleon~

Mojisola wrote: »

There's some good pictures for identification here -

www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/potato.htm

That's a very helpful webpage, thanks :T

What's worrying me now though is that I might have had for longer than I thought going by this statement "The first symptoms of blight are a dark brown patch and yellowing of the leaves,"

Some of the lower leaves on the back row (cara) started turning yellow a couple of weeks ago, then I noticed brown spots starting to appear on them but just put it down to the fact they'd stopped flowering and with it being dry as well I thought it was normal

I think it's almost certain now that it is blight so I shall go out and dig up both rows now and see if there are any spuds worth salvaging

I guess I can still use even the tiny ones for potato salad as long as they're not also affected by it

Ooooops! just read this bit "Avoid overhead watering which would wash spores down to the soil" and what has it been doing most of today???? RAINING!!!!!!! :mad:

Biggles

Your pink fir apples are best as new potatoes, so dig those up by all means.

But your cara are a main crop, so you will want them to mature in the ground for several weeks yet. It's unlikely that the blight (if that's what it is) will have harmed the tubers, just cut off the haulm and burn them.

I frequently have blight and have never had problems with it affecting the tubers as long as I cut off the haulm.

~Chameleon~

I know I'm probably only delaying the inevitable, but on the caras it was only the lower leaves affected so far, and signs of lots of new growth appearing at the leaf nodes on the stem, so I've only removed the lower leaves so far and see what happens.

On the pink fir I've cut off the entire haulms but I shall wait for a warmer sunny day to actually dig up the spuds.

One thing that's been puzzling me since the other day, and now I'm wondering if this is related, but when I dug up those couple of plants to try them I noticed the original seed potato had rotted and gone squishy. Is this normal?

lindseykim13

my moto is if a leaf looks dodgy cut it off! i had blight last year on my toms and all i did was was cut the effected leaves off as it appreared. the plant lasted for the entire season so it worked and only had 1 or 2 inedible toms.
Might work the same for the pots you've got nothing to loose if it gives them more growing time.

rubiales

Unfortunately for us all the forecasters are predicting another wet and warm summer this year. Looks as though we might have already seen the best of the sunshine for this year

Hoping to salvage some of my potatoes and toms this year as lost the lot last summer.

Here's hoping that the forecasts are wrong!!