Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Kleftiwallah on September 27, 2017, 10:41
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This year we grew a few a few spuds in boxes, pristine soli/compost striaght from the bag and we have scabby potatoes! :mad:
Read all the info but cannot deduce why? Any ideas??
Cheers, Tony.
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If they are grown on dryish soil, more likely in pots/boxes, they tend to get more scab and some varieties are more prone than others
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Thanks for that, but I didn't notice the soil drying out too much.
Looks like more observation and a pinch of lime next year. Thanks once again. ;)
Cheers, Tony.
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Ah! She quickly says.
Lime does encourage scab so I was about to suggest that the compost you used may have been alkaline (which most crops like)
Lime + Dryness = Scab
Choosing scab resistant varieties can help, or add a couple of spoonsful of sulphur chips to your compost
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So I'll hold off on the lime. :D I presume the longer I leave them in the soil, the scabbier they will become? Cheers, Tony.
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If it is any help to you,scabby potatoes is only affecting the looks and skin finish.Peel them and it makes no difference to the cooking quality.Lime is the culprit,but being in a high rainfall area here,I lime in my rotation every year apart from the potato year.Some rust/scab but they still"go down very nicely"on the plate.
I have more problems to overcome than that on my patch. Regards John.
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So I'll hold off on the lime. :D I presume the longer I leave them in the soil, the scabbier they will become? Cheers, Tony.
Yes that is true, but as Gellidig has rightly pointed out, scab doesn't affect the eating qualities in any way...unless you want bakers of course and I've never eaten a heavily scabbed skin to know if it is as tasty as normal
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Thanks for all those helpful answers. Cheers, Tony. :)
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We have had the same, and for the same reason. I think virgin bagged compost is too alkaline for spuds. Next year, I'll either buy a mixture or mix with some soil. Interestingly the Deseree ones were much more badly affected than the white potatoes (including the two Pentland Javelin plants I left in).
As others have said, they eat well enough if you take them out the ground. Ours even stored well once dried off and the scab hardened
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I used 1/3 soil, 1/3 compost and a 1/3 last years horse manure on my Desiree bagged potatoes and never had one that was scabbed, (that I noticed), and they did get a bit dried out at times.
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File this under the theory that says, "No good deed goes unpunished." Having an abundance of fine nice wood ash one year, I heavily laced my garden with it. Next spring we eagerly planted our spuds. That fall, surprise!, we had the scabbiest potatoes ever. Lesson learned. I'm agreeing that too much lime might be the root of your root troubles. They taste good, though.
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Some of ours have been scabby and agree with previous replies, the eating experience is wonderful.
Have also found that buying the same variety as we've grown there is a difference in taste , to counter this I just need to grow enough to see us through.
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That's the truth Tenhens, :lol:
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I once grew potatoes in a bed that I had added spent mushroom compost to; the result scab. I then discovered that mushroom compost is alkaline. I only apply lime before growing brassicas.