[Anton]

I went to the allotment yesterday and everything seemed to be in order until I spotted just one of my main crop potatoes looking sorry for itself. The leaves have turned a bit yellow and shrivelled up a tad and they looked as though they have been slightly burnt at the tips. They started flowering a few weeks ago. There is just the one plant affected, while the new potatoes, on the left-hand side of the garden, seem to be doing fine.
Help. Is this the dreaded blight? I did spray them (perhaps not as intensely as I should have owing to a shortage of product) with the blue copper mix thing about a fortnight ago.
Is there anything I should do? Or is there nothing to do?

Anton

[paintedlady]

I had a similar problem with one or two of my main crop and earlies.  Thinking it may be some sort of blight, I dug them up pronto.  The tubers were fine (just new potatoes), but the stem between leaf and roots had rotten - I think it is called "blackleg".  I didn't compost the plant in case of contamination.

[WG.]

Is there anything I should do?

Remove it.

Commercial seed potato growers always manually "rogue" the crop to remove diseased plants.  Blackleg is one of the things they are seeking to control.

[Anton]

Thanks for your reply, Dave? What a curious expression "rogue it". Is blackleg what my plants has, do you think? Is it a fungal disease? Is there any risk of it spreading?

Anton

[WG.]

You'd need to post a picture to have any chance of getting an ID, Anton.

[richyrich7]

Here you go Anton have a look at this I've just come back from my plot and had a couple exactly like this.

So far seems a poor start to my potato year,  mines probably due to the really dry April weather .