Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: caro810 on June 28, 2013, 07:09
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Hi
Went down the allotment yesterday and noticed that two potato plants look a bit sick. The top leaves are starting to curl and the bottom leaves have turned yellow and are limp. The bed where they are planted holds 30 potato plants. Why are these two sick? One is in the middle of a row, the other on the edge. Will the rest follow ? What shall I give them to help them through? :( :( :(
Punctuation added to make easier to read.
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How long have they been in and can you take a pic as people will need to see what you mean to really help.
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Yes a photo is almost a must in these circumstances, but having said that I've had a couple go that way and it's Blackleg (http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=223)
I'm not saying yours is, but it sounds a lot like mine.
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There does seem a lot of Blackleg about this year, I'm losing one or 2 in each row of 16ft - 3 different varieties :(
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It's very characteristic of it. Totally random within the rows,different varieties, for no apparent reason.
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Hi been down the allotment and taken a picture, they went in on the 23rd April and are kestrel.
(http://i.imgur.com/tjwjfjm.jpg)
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I'd lay money on blackleg.
Compare it with this:
Blackleg Photo (http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trade/agr/standard/potatoes/ListofPestPictures/BlackLeg/Image%203551.jpg)
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yes the leaves curling look the same but i have not got any of the brown spots on the leaves and the stems are not black.
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Have you pulled one up to look?
In the early stages you won't see it as it's underground.
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no but will pull one up in the morning would rather pull both to be on the safe side than lose the lot will give update tomorrow thanks for your help.
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Hmm untill today I knew of blackleg in cattle ( which you really don't want to know about ) but I had never heard of it in spuds .
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Good point actually, if you Google "Blackleg" for photos, put "potato" in the search as well!
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I have heard of blackleg on spuds but never had it on the plot, but I do this year!! just three plants out of 140 and it is exactly the same as the picture DD put up the stems are black soft and rotten when I pulled them.
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thanks to DD you were spot on it was blackleg i have dug up these plants but will it spead to the others?
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I have bought the disease control sachets as per your advice for blight DD, as I lost the lot last year. Now I have blackleg I think (or rather my potatoes do) I've pulled up the yellow ones but they are in bags this year with garden centre compost to avoid the blight(!). Shall I spray with the disease control or will it not help with the blackleg?
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There's nothing available to the gardener for control of this disease, if removed promptly you can stop it spreading to other plants.
Have a look at the first link I gave for fuller information.
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Mine have some yellow leaves which seem a bit lifeless, but the leaves aren't curled up and the stems are green and healthy, so All I'm doing is taking the leaves which are most wilted off.
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That link was an interesting read DD ! Joined RHS at same time :)
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As DD said in previous post you have to pull one to see, on mine it was black at the very end of the root and the seed potato was like mush and also black, better safe than sorry as this can spread to the others i lost 2 plants but glad i dug them up.
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I've also lost a few spud plants to this this year. Thought it must have been where I brought the spuds from but if we're all having a problem then it must be because last year was so bad
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I think black leg is on a massive increase this year compared to last!
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Maybe it's in the seed potatoes, it can't be in the soil because I'm growing mine in commercial compost in new potato sacks this year in an attempt to actually get to eat my first potato! Last year and the year before the blight got them, this year I have pulled out 2 because of the blackleg, I do hope I get some of them!
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Thanks to DD I now know about a new (to me) disease of spuds. The picture in the RHS link looked exactly like one of my plants. So I have rushed up to the plot and dug it out and disposed of it - hopefully saving the rest of my spuds. It didn't half smell horrible. (These were new certified seed potatoes this year from a good supplier, and in new ground that hasn't grown spuds for at least 5 years.)
The good news is that I can tick off another item in Hessayon's book of plant diseases and pests.
I've almost ticked off the whole book. Is there a prize for ticking them all :D
Modify> Oops. should have added this to "potato leaves turning yellow" started by caro810 rather than beginning a new thread)
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Duly merged!
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Just want to add my thanks for this - I've had one plant going 'off' and the symptoms were prescribed perfectly so have been down to remove it and a neighbouring plant. The badly affected plant had gone black at the bottom of stem but had not gone further. Hope that's it now but ......... not really sure that I've got away with it yet