[brian17]

I am new to this forum. I have an allotment in Rugby.
I am concerned that there may be blight on my potato plants. Some leaves have brown patches. They are only on my early potatoes so far. I have dug some up and removed affected leaves from other plants. I obtained my seed from my allotment association.
Is this potato blight? If so what else should I do?

[azubah]

Anyone in the area know if there is blight about?
We don't seem to have it here in the midlands yet. (near Birmingham)

Welcome Brian

[Yorkie]

Hi Brian and welcome to the forums  , even if it's a sad post 

Can you take piccies of the leaves?  Might help us tell if it's blight or not.

Edit: have a look at this thread, may give you a better idea of whether you've got blight

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=38176.0

[DD.]

The only confirmed blight so far is in Cornwall.

There is a suspected case in the PE11 postcode area.

Blight Map

[Jay The Digger]

I am struggling against blight at the moment (see below link)

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=38176.0

Despite spraying them with Dithane, it has started to spread to healthy plants.  Am going to go down to my patch in a minute and pick off all the affected parts and re-spray again.

Am a bit sceptic about this blight watch as mine are definitely infected but am not in a blight area showing on the map.

I am dreading going on holiday as they will be left defenceless for a fortnight.   

[strangerachael]

Hi Brian - I am in Rugby too - which site are you at? I'm at Alwyn Road and as far as I know nobody has reported any blight (not that I know much) - I certainly haven't seen any on mine or my neighbours'

[Chiswickian]

arent there two types of blight? Early blight (which is said to be not too serious) and proper blight (which is and happens in August when the weather is warmer). They are caused by different fungi.

Last year I had leaves on my spuds that looked much like yours - sent to the RHS and was diagnosed as early blight. I was advised to remove all affected foliage , burn it and take care not to water foliage. Can affect yields though and was advised to lift if it became serious.

[richyrich7]

I'm sure your right Chiswickian, I would have thought it's too early for the later blight ?

[Jay The Digger]

I agree, they are showing all the signs of Early Blight.  The lower older leaves are first to show spots, and since we have had some heavy rain, the row adjacent has a few leaves affected (only on the side of the infected plants.

I thought that a thorough spraying would stop this spread (Does rain wash Dithane from the plant?)

How serious is early blight?

[Iain@JBA]

Blight is bad to stop. What you are doing is correct by using the dithane but maybe there is a source of infection close by that is spreading the spores to re infect your spuds.
Blight can be spread by the wind, rain, hands, clothes or any other object that the spores can stick to and be passed on to your other potatoes.
Do you have pictures of your haulms growing in your plot?

[Beejay]

I think my potatoes 1st earlies, have blight!

The leaves had brown marks on them, so I compared the leaves to pictures in the veg/herb expert and it convinced me that I had blight! I cu off the haulms and destroyed them.

I don't have the technology to send photographs!

I Seem to be the only one on our site to have it. Funnily enough, I was the first two years ago to get it.

Could it be in the ground?

[Chiswickian]

if you have blight it will , almost certainly, be Early Blight which is a different disease altogether to late blight (which is serious). If you are an RHS member send some samples to Plant Pathology at Wisley. They'll diagnose for you. Early blight is nowhere near as serious as late blight which is caused by phytophthora species of fungi

[janeheritage]

And you can find out more about the spread of blight by joining Blightwatch - www.blightwatch.co.uk. Most of their members are commercial growers so it doesn't always represent small infections on allotments and garden plots, but it will tell you whether you might be at risk.

[home made pie]

I'm afraid I've got it too, I'm growing four different varieties but so far only one variety is affected, unless its just working it's way accross the patch so not got to the others yet.  The lower leaves were badly yellow with lots of brown spots, the next few leaves up were not yellow but had lots of brown spots.  I'm still in shock, I was only admiring them a few days ago and was really happy how well everything was looking.  I've removed all the affected parts and will go and get some Dithane tomorrow.  It's binning it down this evening so nothing else I can do at the mo 

[Jay The Digger]

Well it has now spread to the poor guy next to me.  Had a look around the site, and we are the only ones so far....

I dug up a couple of affected plants to see what effect it is having on the tubers.  One plant was badly affected with all potatoes covered in sunken scabs and unusable.  Yet the one right next to it was fine.

Am not going to take any chances and take out two rows of the affected plants.  This is about 50 plants now so am going to have a lot of new potatoes.  Am going to set up a swap system by giving away loads now in return for some back later in the season.

New potatoes anyone?