Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: DD. on May 23, 2014, 09:37
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Having had a quick look at the Blightwatch map and with an eye on the current damp weather, I thought it worthwhile starting this year's thread.
Blight map here:
http://www.potato.org.uk/fight-against-blight/blight-incidents
As you can see there are confirmed outbreaks in the Warrington and Norwich areas, with suspected cases in the Telford and Peterborough postcode areas.
The forum advice thread is here:
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=56717.0
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Hello again, more potato related stuff, had a warning of a full Smith Period for our location in Grimsby, just thought my fellow Grimm's might need to know, full period was Thursday and Friday, Cheers, Ian
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'Near miss' here a day or so ago!
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Good grief, I haven't even planted the tomatoes outside yet!
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oh dear do you think its time to spay yet or not
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oh dear do you think its time to spay yet or not
Read the forum advice - link given in DD's post...........
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How miserable - almost every plotholder's potatoes have succumbed to blight. My seed potatoes were delivered four weeks late so my plants haven't had a chance to grow any good sized potatoes - still marble sized.
So far mine have been missed but I am surrounded by affected plants - only a matter of time.
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I'm in Belgium but I noticed some very sorry looking early potatoes yesterday evening (it has been very hot and humid here for the last few days). I was hoping it might be slugs, wishful thinking. The maincrop is still unaffected and still flowering. I think I will go and spray them. My potatoes have had blight for the last two years but in July so they were a good size and I just cut off the tops and left them in the soil for about three weeks, dug them up and had no problems (eat the last of last year's crop a month ago).
Do you think they will be a decent size if they are still flowering?
Anton
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Sorry to hear of your site's plight Sprout. I'm nextdoor in Devon and down in the far West, blight can come very early, and only serves to demonstrate that people should really really get their potatoes in early down here and take advantage of the relatively frost free climate. Middle of March at the latest in a mild Winter like we have just had. In fact the St Patrick's day thing is probably best every year. That's always my Westcountry advice.
Not a sign of it in Devon and I must say this latest high pressure and weather for the next fortnight almost countrywide is a godsend for first and second earlies, blightwise. Very little to no chance of blight developing down here in these conditions for a good while. I'm surprised you have blight on your site, yet you haven't been affected. Usually it hits like a blanket within a week unless you have some sort of blight resistant variety like Sarpo.
Let us know if it progresses.
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Some very suspect leaves on my red duke of York
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It has landed at our allotment in Bradford. Nothing near on the blightwatch map although it is in North Yorkshire and Lancashire. There doesn't seem to be a way of letting them know it is now in a new area.
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Apparently we have it too. Looks like it as the plants have gone over in a matter of days and they look sick sick sick. Mine touch wood are ok so far.
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It has landed at our allotment in Bradford. Nothing near on the blightwatch map although it is in North Yorkshire and Lancashire. There doesn't seem to be a way of letting them know it is now in a new area.
These few old posts may help
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=106324.msg1231199#msg1231199
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I heard it was in driffield,and now this morning fellow plot holder(Bridlington) said his spuds have it on our site im okay as I have had nearly had most of my spuds up 1st and 2nd just put main in today hope fully will miss the next bout of blight ;)
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Not a sign of it in Devon and I must say this latest high pressure and weather for the next fortnight almost countrywide is a godsend for first and second earlies, blightwise. Very little to no chance of blight developing down here in these conditions for a good while. I'm surprised you have blight on your site, yet you haven't been affected. Usually it hits like a blanket within a week unless you have some sort of blight resistant variety like Sarpo.
No sign of it here either. The spud foliage is huge and looks amazing this year :)
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have,nt got spuds down this year, but got greenhouse and outdoor tomatoes. blight in my area, think some plot holders have it on their spuds. should i spray my tomatoes or is it too late.
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If you're going to spray you need to do it before there are any signs of blight - it's a preventative measure rather than a cure unfortunately.
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We now have a dot on the blightwatch map, just got to wait for the pack to send in a sample
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Hi all just been down the plot and seen what looks too much like blight!! :(
Had checked blight map and there didn't seem to be any round here.
Will have to chop down the tops after lunch can't risk it as I have two beds which looked very heathy till today! :unsure:
Cheers HH
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It all depends on people reporting it, several went down on our site before ours but it was me that reported it
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Good point BQ i have sent an email report but the website doesn't seem set up to encourage reporting ??
Cheers HH
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Good point BQ i have sent an email report but the website doesn't seem set up to encourage reporting ??
Cheers HH
Same for me HH. I got an automated response thanking me for my email, but nothing more and my report of blight in BD15 has not appeared on the map. However, if you spend many hours trawling through their site, it does throw up one article with a name and email address where you can volunteer to be an allotment blight monitor.
Is this what you have done BQ?
I suspect they will only take reports from people who are blight scouts from the industry or registered allotment monitors who have been given a kit to send samples in. I suppose it makes sure there are no false alarms, but potentially the blightwatch maps are under reporting the incidence of blight.
Here is the link to the relevant page. The contact details are towards the bottom.
http://www.potato.org.uk/news/potato-growers-face-weather-related-challenges
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Yes you get encouraged to be a blight watch monitor and they did take about five days to respond but the response came in about 9 pm one night.
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Have I got Blight already??
Hi all - in the last few days my 2 rows of early spuds (Pentland Javelin) have decided to look like they have blight. The 2 rows are the only ones that look like this.. see photos.. I dug some spuds and they look great - no black blight blotches on the tubers at all... also no blotches on the stalks.. just the leaves looking very blighty!! Plants look a bit off as well compared to the others rows of late varieties which are roaring away and nice and dark green. Almost look like they have run out of steam and are starting to die off.. Planted them on 31 march so they are only 11 weeks old BUT it has been very dry. Even digging them today is very dry. I manured and fertilized with a bit of general fert and some organic potato pellets when I planted them.
Surely with the hot weather we've been having it cant be blight?? None on the map near me...
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I have to say mine look the same, will be interesting to see what the general consensus is......
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I think blight would have been more general than your pics Gavin, so look at other problems - if any!
We all scrunge up when we see a leaf go awkward, and fear the worst! Just take it easy and consider the alternatives!
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They look blighty to me.
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Its a strange on.... the two early rows have totally lost colour compared to the rest... same prep etc. for all 6 rows..
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It looks like blight to me. Oddly, three plots on our site have had blight in the last 2 weeks, all Pentland Javelin. Blight maps show nothing in the immediate vicinity, but in the next county. I chopped the tops off mine and am leaving for 2 weeks. Mine looked like yours, but I didn't want to risk leaving them to spread to the maincrops in the next bed, which are the more resistant Cara and Picasso. The plotholder next to me had 1 plant very blighted in a tub, he checked underneath and all was mush.
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I only grow earlies due to space... Went to do some weeding and noticed most of my 'nicolas' had brown/black patches on the leaves, whole plant didnt look too healthy, white fungal on some leaves .... As I've got 25 tom plants outside too I decided not to risk them for a few rows of spuds. Cut them down and Dug up 3 rows, best yield I've ever had! Friends have been very happy ...
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Nearly all potatoes got blight in Littlehampton, started about 3 weeks ago.
All we have left is brown stalks all over the place.
It looks like October!
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Was away for a week at the beginning of June and came back to find some very poorly tomatoes at my daughters. YO26 postcode - wasnt entirely sure if it was blight r a bacterial stem rot but pulled them all up except one small bush tomato which appears to have escaped. Potatoes on friends nearby allotments also YO26 look unaffected
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Is it....?
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Is it....?
Hey up its my spuds, looks like mine and mine have it :wacko:
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My Lady C's look a bit like that too
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DBG that may not be blight. The complete leaf we can see at the front is discoloured in lines between the veins which I would say is magnesium deficiency. The other black spots may also be magnesium deficiency. They could be early blight but I would expect to see rings, it is alternatively called target blight for that reason. Early blight usually does little harm. The spots do not cross veins. Late blight crosses the veins and the lesions are usually bigger and more untidy.
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Not late blight for me either DBG.
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Is it....?
No... It's Early Blight (target spot). It won't affect the tubers.
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Went to plot tonight and plot neighbours diggig up all their kestrel as they say they have blight. Mine are kestrel also but look fine so suppose had better keep check on them and dig up quickly if see some odd leaves!
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If it is blight don't dig them up quickly - cut the tops off and leave the potatoes underground for a fortnight, they've got less chance of getting live blight spores on the tubers when you dig them up then, than if you do it straight away.
RHS advice
•When infection levels reach about 25 percent of leaves affected or marks appear on stems cut off foliage (haulm) severing the stalks near soil level and raking up debris. When the skin on tubers has hardened, after about two weeks, the tubers are dug up and stored.
http://rhs.org.uk/Advice/profile?pid=217
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Thanks mum. Will keep check on them and do that if any problems
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We have it now on our plot so I would say a day or two and mine will be chopped :(
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Blight has hit our site, a few plots mine included. We have all cut the tops off and left them in the ground.... so very annoying
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Hi guys... have I got Blight?
(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a3/groundengineer/IMG_0168_zpsd84614f6.jpg) (http://s8.photobucket.com/user/groundengineer/media/IMG_0168_zpsd84614f6.jpg.html)
(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a3/groundengineer/IMG_0167_zps2b12f599.jpg) (http://s8.photobucket.com/user/groundengineer/media/IMG_0167_zps2b12f599.jpg.html)
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Blight on the potatoes here in Tadley, looks like a few plots have it. Tops have been taken off the salads and 2nd earlies tonight. The couple of maincrop that survived the flooding are Sarpo's so hoping they'll be ok.
Only growing toms in the greenhouses so hope they have a bit more protection, but will start spraying them tomorrow to (hopefully) give a bit of extra resistance.
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That looks like blight to me :(
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Thats what I thought... sadly, have about 50.. to 60 plants, shame
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Two days ago and all was well. Now most of my crop is affected. 60 plants. :(
Ran out of time but managed to cut the tops of three rows. I am in IP21 suffolk
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My "Foremost" got Blight yesterday - BN8 East Sussex
I've lifted some and they are fine but I've cut the haulms down on all of my spuds just in case.
They are growing under Terram with more soil on top so I will leave them where they are and just lift as needed.
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I planted a bed with potatoes (Maris Piper, Maris Peer, and Kestrel) late this year (1 month ago), and they've been coming up over the last couple of weeks. Today when watering I noticed that a few of them have blight. Should I dig them up? I'd like to try and prevent the others from getting blight too. If it means loosing a few I don't mind too much.
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Small King Edward maincrop on plot have now been cut down due to blight. Surprisingly my garden potatoes now have blight today and have been chopped ..... and not a Smith period here since the old King died. Last year not a sniff anywhere down here, this year, it's always been hanging around here and there in the background..... strange disease. Have a good crop though.
I really don't understand what relevance the Smith period is given it's qualification and don't really get what use the blight map is for allotmenteers in general, given that so may people near me have gone down with blight, but not a dot anywhere near here. I assume commercial growers don't rely on this map ? Is there some sort of research going on here that I can't fathom ?. Is there any useful statistical control ? Can anyone enlighten me ?
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If no-one tells them where the blight is spotted - they won't know! Simple as that...............
Some of these sightings of blight, allotment or farm, may not actually be blight, it would have to be confirmed with testing, before a red dot was confirmed.
The Smith period is purely a means of letting you know that the conditions are right for blight, because some people will decide to spray at that stage.
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I've had very few smith periods in Dorset.
My Earlys finished and died back by themselves in June after being in 3 months and without much water.
My mains are Sarpo Miras and seem to be doing just fine. (you can see the sarpos in the background of pics)
My toms on the plot 5 plants Santa Marzano have all got this :( I can only discribe it as looking like a 3ft garden gnome has come along and crushed the stems.
(http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/xx118/akaemzybabe/06DBABDA-CE32-4B3A-BEA1-77D321961F6E_zpsks2ruhtf.jpg) (http://s747.photobucket.com/user/akaemzybabe/media/06DBABDA-CE32-4B3A-BEA1-77D321961F6E_zpsks2ruhtf.jpg.html)
(http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/xx118/akaemzybabe/D16A4070-7CCF-4ABE-8E01-E699E4A93B57_zpszub6zamc.jpg) (http://s747.photobucket.com/user/akaemzybabe/media/D16A4070-7CCF-4ABE-8E01-E699E4A93B57_zpszub6zamc.jpg.html)
I cut a lot of the foliage back to expose the fruits last week and by the end of this week I had noticed some of the fruits had started to go a bit brown.
The know it all on the plot said it was blight but I'm not sure. What do you guys think?
I have 1 Santa Marzano at home in a pot (sown and raised at home with the others) as test subjects. These all look healthy a little damage from underwatering but no blackness.
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Looks like blight to me :( The blackening stems and browning fruit are typical.
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:( thanks I'll cut them down this week before someone does it for me. If it is blight then the Sarpo Miras are worth the money! The Sarpos I grew last year go absolutly huge so here's hoping for the same
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Just a thought. It might be a good strategy to plant the tomatoes as far from the potatoes as possible. If potatoes get blight the easy solution is to cut the tops off. If tomatoes get blight the crop is almost certainly ruined. An infected potato crop next door does not help.
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I always think that if potatoes on your plot have got blight, there's no chance of your toms not getting it, no matter where you plant them - specially on modern small size plots :(
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A few of my Romanos are looking like this. I'm a bit of a novice so asked one of the other plotholders what it is and they said it looks like the tops are just dying off, but I'm concerned it might be blight. What do you think it is?
(http://i.imgur.com/cbhEbiA.jpg)
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Thats what I thought... sadly, have about 50.. to 60 plants, shame
You're just up the road from me but there is no blight showing on the Blightwatch maps for any of London, East Berks, South Bucks or Surrey.
Wish there was an easier way for allotments to report blight incidents.
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You can sign up to be a BlightWatch scout, I have.
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Thanks AS - other than in tomatoes I am not sure that I am experienced enough to spot it. I've never had it on spuds, just tomatoes.
Some of my Desiree look a bit like Losing the Plot's, but they are sending up healthy green shoots further down the stem.
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The general yellowing of the leaves looks like they have reached maturity and are dying off naturally. Having said that the blobs on the leaves are almost certainly blight.
I would remove the tops. If they are mature they will grow no more anyway. If you leave them there is potential for the blight spores to infect the potato tubers.
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You don't have to be experienced with blight to be a blight scout. You just send some specimen leaves off to them for testing.
They send you all the postal things.
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I lost my entire crop of Foremost to blight last week CA2 Cumbria
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Interesting, there's no sign of it in CA7. I've only been 'blighted' once in the last seven years.
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Got it on tomatoes on one of the fields on our site - KT5 Kingston
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I think there's blight here as well :( It's not the super-quick, turn everything black overnight, kind but all the spuds are all going down gradually, including the garden toms. Perhaps the dry weather is slowing it up here :unsure:
Even the 2 toms nearest the greenhouse door have had some suspect leaves removed this morning.
Must buy some spray for next year, it's heart breaking to loose the toms after all the hard work. At least with the spuds there will still be a crop underground.
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Interesting, there's no sign of it in CA7. I've only been 'blighted' once in the last seven years.
SC, I thought at first that it was just dryness as the leaves and stems turned yellow. Then I got black blobs on the leaves and it also affected the tubers too. Most of them were soft and when you cut into them, the flesh had a speckled appearance
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I've chucked three suspect tomato plants, after Mrs Growster spied a couple of fruits with the late blight markings, and the stems showed up black in parts the following day.
They were in a long tray, rather like a window box, and planted amongst a lot of other stuff, so couldn't dry out after watering!
So far, all the others are OK, even the ones nearby so fingers crossed!
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A couple of greenhouse tomatoes were showing definite signs of blight, including stems and fruit, so they're now history. Surprisingly, they're not the plants nearest the door, and the outside toms are still holding their own, just. A strange year for blight with the feeling it was always just hanging about in the air, but never getting a head of steam up.
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All the toms and spuds on the plots were struck with blight a week or so ago - no near blight warnings and no Smith period warnings either ::)
But today I got a near miss email :lol: :nowink: bit late now m'thinks!
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All the toms and spuds on the plots were struck with blight a week or so ago - no near blight warnings and no Smith period warnings either ::)
But today I got a near miss email :lol: :nowink: bit late now m'thinks!
TN18 has a Full Smith Period now, and it sure feels like it!
Bordeaux'd all the Patch Toms again yesterday, but one or two suspects at home are holding their own! At least they won't get a headache, as they all had another dose of soluble aspirin yesterday...
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All the toms and spuds on the plots were struck with blight a week or so ago - no near blight warnings and no Smith period warnings either ::)
But today I got a near miss email :lol: :nowink: bit late now m'thinks!
TN18 has a Full Smith Period now, and it sure feels like it!
Bordeaux'd all the Patch Toms again yesterday, but one or two suspects at home are holding their own! At least they won't get a headache, as they all had another dose of soluble aspirin yesterday...
:ohmy:
SSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh!
We don't want European beaurocrats to know about the acetyl-salicyclic-acid thing!!! :D
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Sure my toms have the start of blight :ohmy:
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Quite right, Devon, but don't worry, I won't tell anybody...
;0)
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I have heard that some on our allotment site have got blight. The wind blows a gale in my direction so if it's true then no doubt mine have it too now. Do I dig up all the potatoes now. Foliage seems fine on mine just going the usual yellow colour.
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wait until you see it on yours, then follow advice in my earlier post!
If it is blight don't dig them up quickly - cut the tops off and leave the potatoes underground for a fortnight, they've got less chance of getting live blight spores on the tubers when you dig them up then, than if you do it straight away.
RHS advice
•When infection levels reach about 25 percent of leaves affected or marks appear on stems cut off foliage (haulm) severing the stalks near soil level and raking up debris. When the skin on tubers has hardened, after about two weeks, the tubers are dug up and stored.
http://rhs.org.uk/Advice/profile?pid=217
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Ok will keep an eye on them for now.
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Hi
We spent yesterday cutting foliage off our 4 potato beds......4 days ago the pots were lovely and lush, yesterday the majority were yellow with black spots on :( Does the foliage we've cut off need to be bagged straight away as we've left a pile on the allotment?? The other thing was, we lifted a few plants to check on the tubers and a lot had holes in-these were maincrops that had gone in in May so they weren't due out til September. We haven't over watered and we haven't had much rain-any reason for the holes?
Also, we had blight last year too-in a different place (we've been really strict re rotations)-is there something we are doing wrong or something we should be doing?? :unsure:
Cheers
Wendy
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There has been a lot of potato damage from slugs this year, after the very wet winter :(
Yes, it's best to bag and dispose of or burn the blighted foliage, to stop the blight spreading further.
Blight spores are wind blown, not a lot you can do unless you spray.
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Hi
Thanks for that. You mentioned spraying-when is the best time to spray and how often during the season? Also, are there any organic things to spray with or just the inorganic ones.
Thanks
Wendy
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The Forum Blight advice is here
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=56717.msg668473#msg668473
All the sprays available contain copper, and organic farmers use Bordeaux mix, also copper based.
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I discovered signs of blight on my spuds yesterday, on the two plants at the end of my row. I removed them completely. No tubers yet, and flowers only just starting to appear so I don't know whether it's worth spraying the rest and crossing my fingers that they survive long enough to produce a crop. They were a supposedly blight resistant variety and were due to be ready around november.
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The blight resistent varities can show signs of blight but not actually get destroyed by it. My Sarpo Mira have had signs of it for a while, but they soldiered on and are now getting to the stage where they are ready for lifting. I haven't sprayed, but mine were only a few weeks off harvest.
If yours are ready in November, are they in a polytunnel - was just thinking they must be under cover for frost protection :unsure:
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they're not covered as yet but will be before november. my cheap polytunnel collapsed last year so it's been cut up and made into a mini tunnel about a metre high, which i can move around the plot.
tbh i put the spuds in mostly to improve the soil on a part of the plot which hasn't been worked for a few years, so if the blight does get to them i'll just dig everything up and plant some green manure in there.
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Received blight warnings for my area yesterday, still got 2 rows of main in. Busy week ahead hopefully I'll get chance to take the foliage off this week