[lizziesdad]

I have had my allotment since December 2010. It was chest high in briars when I got it but I worked hard to clear it. In Spring 2011 I planted Foremost, Maris Piper and Maris Baird and a variety with a blue skin ( can't remember the name but they weren't very big). Foremost and the blue spuds had no wireworm but at least 25% of my Maris Pipers / Baird were infested with wireworm and had to be dumped. This year, I rotated my crop and planted Foremost, King Edward, Kerr's Pink and Majestic. I've dug up the Foremost and the crop was as good as last year but a few are infested with wireworm unlike last year. I've dug up one haulm of K Ed's to see what's going on and while the pots are a good size I found wireworm in two of the nine pots.
Two questions
Should I leave the King Ed's in the ground and risk the wireworm infesting more of them? The Kerr's and Majestic are not ready for lifting yet so I don't know what will be going on with them.
Are there any varieties that are resistant to wireworm? Some other allotment holders also had this problem last year.

[BabbyAnn]

I don't think there is a wireworm resistant variety of potato and comes down to working the soil a lot (they don't like soil being disturbed.  Also, perhaps don't grow potatoes on a bed that was recently covered in grass but leave it a good 2-3 years for the larvae to have matured and moved on)  Next year you could perhaps grow a mustard green manure on the proposed potato beds, and after digging in, cover with plastic - mustard when damaged release chemical biofumigants which supposedly kills off a lot of soil pests but I have no idea how effective it is.  Another trick is to scatter/bury chunks of potato and use these like bait - don't forget to check/replace with fresh on a regular basis.

With regards to your current situation - are you sure it is wireworm and not slugs?  The fact that you have selected varieties succumbing to infestation, and the ones you mentioned fall into the same slug resistant / slug prone categories so I'm wondering if you know for certain if it is wireworm.  King Edwards and Maris Piper are very susceptible to slugs (the main reason why I will never grow them again after losing a good portion of the crop to them in the past) whereas Nadine and Foremost usually do better.  Kerrs Pink tend to be so-so but not sure about Majestic (never grown them before so don't know)

I tend to select my potato varieties on their slug resistence - if you search online such as the JBA potato merchants http://www.jbaseedpotatoes.co.uk/ , you can even search for slug resistant varieties if that helps

[potatogrower]

i used Nadines 2 yrs ago and i didn't have much damage. following year i grew Cara and maris piper and about 25% had damage with holes, mostly small ones and big ones were salvagable. i'm not sure if leaving them in the ground too long with stems cut caused them to be damaged or not.

It would depend on the conidtion of your soil but my advise would be when they're ready dig them all out. others may advise otherwise