[CaroleG]

Hello
I'm looking for people's experience on dealing with blight ignorers on allotments please 

We began an allotment on previously fallow land last spring. Everything was brilliant until blight arrived. Some tennants left the affected plants to fester in the ground, some I noticed had pulled up affected plants and chucked them on top of our central communal compost heap.  Some of the worst offenders are on the allottment committee. 

As we're a brand new association, we don't have any experience on how we could deal with offenders. Do other associations inspect plots and demand action on affected plants? It seems that leaving it to common sense didn't work last year, so your advice and experience would be much appreciated!

Thanks

[savbo]

my take is that blight spores are everywhere, if the conditions are right you'll get it whether or not you exercise hygiene on your plot...

I'm happy to stand corrected though!

sav

[DD.]

As the song goes, sav....

"The answer my friend is blowing in the wind!"

[CaroleG]

   So it's just me & my OCD that removes leaves with any tiny sign of it  ? I was happy that I had an early crop of toms before the blight came. (I took a gamble on early planting out in April when the others were all shaking their heads and warning it was too cold) I think the consensus this year is that no one is growing them because most people lost all of their crop.

[DD.]

We got away with it this year, but I do admit to having precautions on standby!

[savbo]

on our site (which is quite sheltered) few people grow maincrop spuds because of blight, but earlies usually get lifted before it hits.Our plot is just about the most exposed on the site so we seem slightly less susceptible but I still only grow earlies and all my toms are indoor

sav

[sunshineband]

As the song goes, sav....

"The answer my friend is blowing in the wind!"

You are right, but it is very frustrating when that wind is blowing spores from two plots away though   

[Salmo]

Blight is spread by the wind but the most common source of the spores are blighted tubers that have been dumped.

Spores can only live on living material. e.g. affected potatoes that have not rotted away over the Winter. Their new sprouts in the Spring will produce blight spores to spread to your crop.

Good hygiene is to check all compost/rubbish heaps and destroy any potatoes that are sprouting from them. Either pull them out or a quick dose of roundup.

The other common source is potatoes that have been missed and start to grow among other crops. Sometimes regarded as a bonus crop but actually a bit of a menace.

Getting rid of your local blight sources is not the complete answer as spores can travel many miles on the wind but elliminating them must help.

[Rampant_Weasel]

quick does of roundup ! genius!
why didnt i think of that? every year i am gingerly trying to pull out a volunteer spud from a pea row or somewhere else really fiddly lol !
will remember that for this year

[allotment south wales]

Prevention is better than the cure..

Spraying with bordor salts or more common fruit and veg fungicide VIA BAYER GARDEN for the grow your own market.

Some spray as a prevention rather than waiting to find blight has already done the damage.

if you are caught out you can cut the affected potato haulms back down to ground level. clear away the affected haulms to prevent the disease spreading down to the tubers.

[DD.]

May I suggest a more comprehensive overview of the blight issue

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=56717.0

[DD.]

It's been pointed out that some of the links and photo's no longer work.  We'll fix this later on when Blight Watch is back up and running.

[azubah]

If you grow blight resistant potatoes you don't have to worry about it at all and just enjoy your plot.

[DD.]

Not true. They are blight resistant not blight proof!

[azubah]

Sarpo mira and axona are very good. I was pleased with mine last year after years of being disappointed with other varieties.