[Njal]

Hi,
I thought it was too early in the year for potato blight, but some of mine have withered to amost nothing and the rest seem to be going the same way.

Also some of my parnsips seem a bit poorly.

I have attached some pics. Could it just be underwatering? I have been off for a weel or two recently and they haven't been watered as much as usual.

Thanks in advance.

[Njal]

Another pic.

[Njal]

Hmm, can only post one at a time even though I made them really small.

[Njal]

Last one of the pots.

[Njal]

Now a parsnip pic.

[DD.]

Doesn't look like blight from that distance, the nearest reported outbreak to you is in Scotland.

Any chance of a closer shot?

It certainly won't be blight on parsnips.

[DD.]

Sorry I posted while you were posting.

Could be be blackleg on the spuds - there seems to be a lot around this year. What are the stems like.

Re the parsnips, how dry are they?

[Njal]

Hi,
The stems are dark green, not black really.
There are brown spots and yellowing on the potato leaves.
A couple of other plots have a similar problem but the one next to ours has full and healthy potatoes and one quite neglected plot has healthy ones too.
The soil has been quite dusty recently.

[Njal]

Looking in my Hessayon book, it looks closest to frost (unlikely) or magnesium deficiency.

Are they too far gone for a plant food?

[Aunt Sally]

Looks like mineral deficiency to me.  The soil looks rather lacking - needs more humus.

[Njal]

Hmm, okay thanks.
The plot is only about 15months old. Was a field used for grazing cows before that.
I have put rotted manure in, but obviously not enough!

Thanks for your answers.

[Aunt Sally]

Adding humus - rotted manure, home made compost - is the best thing to do for soil but remember that humus holds water and nutrients in the soil rather than adding them itself.  You need to use a fertiliser of some kind too.

[JayG]

I'd recommend giving your parsnips a liquid feed because if your soil is dry and sandy they will almost certainly be starving and possibly lacking water also. If they improve then add some general purpose fertiliser as well and water that in (not the usual advice for parsnips but the experience gained from many years of growing crops of all sorts on poor sandy soil.)

Dig up one of the dead spud plants and have a close look - could be almost anything including potato eelworm (although I would have thought that pretty unlikely on ex-grassland.)

[arugula]

Strangely, our parsnips in sandy soil here don't suffer from lack of moisture and thrive.

[DD.]

That's 'cos you've been moaning about all the rain you get!