[ricky]

Hi folks can anyone tell me has the potato blight passed for the year or should I keep spraying cheers. Ricky

[mumofstig]

I don't know whether it's gone or not, and won't ask what you are spraying with, because there aren't any fungicides that gardeners can legally use against potato blight.
RHS says

Chemical Control : There are currently no fungicides available for use by gardeners against blight on potatoes or tomatoes.

[ricky]

Mumofstig , I'm using dithane which is perfectly legal I go to my local farmers store here in n. Ireland and buy it by the kilo , that's what all the farmers and gardeners use over here  , anyone can buy it on eBay, what do you guy in the rest of the UK use to deter blight there has to be something.

[mumofstig]

The way I understand it,  Dithane is still available for Farmers to use, but not for gardeners without the appropriate training/equipment.

AS the RHS says gardeners have nothing legally available to use.

[ricky]

I'm out in the sticks here Mumofstig and everyone knows me so it's easy to purchase .

[Goosegirl]

To answer your question, the potato leaves will be dying off now so spraying won't do any good.

[Aunt Sally]

I think perhaps you should lift your potatoes and store them now before the slugs have a taste of each one 

[DHM]

Don't write the potatoes off just yet Goosegirl! The suprise ones growing out of my compost heap are still in full flower and the late planted Christmas pots are only just getting going!

In answer to Rickys Qs, as an organic gardener I just accept that sometimes I'll lose crops. There is still tomato blight on our site, so one could only assume the potatoes are at risk too but the climate down here in SE England is probably massively different to yours. Good luck!

[ricky]

DHM I have alot of blight over here n. Ireland altho this year I haven't seen much but a year ago blight hit my tunnel wiped out my blight resistant tomatoes  200 odd plants mountain magic all gone the blight seems to mutate and change  over alot I've tried every type of blight resistant tomato the one that seems to do the best is ferline , as for potatoes I've had sarpo mira great resistance to blight but taste awful  so I grow things that taste nice not for their resilience to blight thanks for your reply . Ricky

[DHM]

Yeah me too. I lost 14 tomato plants to late blight this year (not quite the 200 you do!) and it's really soul destroying when you wait 2 months for them to ripen then they start rotting on the vine. I can't offer any blight protection for mine but this still wouldn't make me go for disease resistance over flavour. Flavour wins every time otherwise why would we do this in the 1st place? Hoping my Toms fare better next year, I'm still going to plant the same types regardless! Before I got this plot I used to grow potatoes in bags and so far have never had potato blight but you never know. Good luck with yours.