Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: crowndale on August 01, 2009, 08:09
-
Last year my spuds were riddled with wire worm and had a bit of scab on them. theis year no wire worm but they are so scabby they look inedible without peeling about half the spud away, don't taste that good either. the earlies were gorgeous and not scabbed much but the maincrop are awful. can anyone tell me what causes this on spuds and what can I do to prevent it happening? don't want to waste the entire crop but they're not going to store well and I grew enough to eat through the winter.
-
One or two of my maincrop were scabby and I did a google while on the plot. :lol:dont laugh its been a very handy thing having the internet, it has saved me making many errors.
I came across a site that said the soil is too limey and then someone else saying they needed to add more grass clippings next year. This wise lot will probably tell me thats all wrong, which I am hoping they will if it is as I would like to know for next year.
It also said they are fine to eat
-
Scab is worse in limy soils. It is also worse if the crop is dry just after the small tubers have formed. Plenty of manure will help to retain moisture and make the soil more acid.
Many soils get overlimed. This does not matter too much on clay soil but on light soil it certainly gives more scab.
Some varieties are more resistant than others. See potato council website http://varieties.potato.org.uk/menu.php
It is common scab and not powdery scab that you are interested in.
-
well, I did heavily lime last eyar for brassicas, but then its also a very ehavy clay soil, and had loads of manure dug in! but it was also very dry when the small tubers were formed. so maybe just ry next eyar and see how it goes, its certainly the worst I have had this year.
-
I think the variety you grow is important. Last year I grew two first earlies in the same bed alongside each other. One was excellent (Arran Pilot) the other was full of wireworm and didn't grow well (Maris Bard). I'm sure that local people to your area will know what grows well locally and what doesn't and this might help get round the scab problem. Certianly some varities are much more resistant to scab than others.