[Potiron]

 My first early and second early spuds have the blight. The spuds under the affected shaws are a good size so what would be the best thing to do now. Dig up all the spuds or clear away the tops and lift the potatoes as and when needed ?

[mumofstig]

cut the tops off and leave the spuds for at least 2 weeks before lifting. This should stop them getting blight spores on them as you lift them

[JohnB47]

Me too. Discovered at the weekend that some of my charlottes and kestrel were looking a bit brown and thinning out. I thought, 'they're getting ready to lift, that's all'. The Picasso were looking green and healthy.

Today I went up - major blight all over. No mistaking it. Going to follow mums advice later, even if it hasn't stopped raining!

Looking like a very bad year.

[Bing]

this is my 2nd year, and I don't know what is blight, but one on my plant went yellow and its main stem close to soil had gone rotten, I pulled it and put it in compost. dug up the potatos and they were nice but smaller than expected.

did I get blight?

[JohnB47]

this is my 2nd year, and I don't know what is blight, but one on my plant went yellow and its main stem close to soil had gone rotten, I pulled it and put it in compost. dug up the potatos and they were nice but smaller than expected.

did I get blight?

Well, I've been to my plot and cut down the hulms - most were still green and quite crisp to cut through, so hopefully the spuds will be not too bad below. I've seen the other post about the blight map - I'm certainly no expert but if what's hit my spuds (and those of many others around my plot) isn't blight, then I'm the proverbial chimps relation.

Bing - I know at least one person who crys wolf every year regarding blight but this is the first time I've seen on my spud plants what I've seen on my own tomato plants a few years ago. Difficult to describe accurately but when you've seen it, there's no mistake. From what you describe, you've possibly got something like blackleg, which effects individual plants, rather than blight which tends to show on lots of plants at a time. Google for potato blight and you'll get lots of images.

[Bing]

thanks John

I was pointed out by a plot neighbour last year that someone else's tomatos had got blight. but I have never seen any on potatos, I persume they have similar looking.

I also have brown spots on couple of potatos which seems like magnesium deficiency according to google.

blackleg? but I could not see any colour of black which is strange.

...here is my idea,

if I cut off all the plants above ground and they have already flowered, and dig them whenever I need, will doing this help me beating blight and blackleg?

[Kajazy]

thanks John

I was pointed out by a plot neighbour last year that someone else's tomatos had got blight. but I have never seen any on potatos, I persume they have similar looking.

I also have brown spots on couple of potatos which seems like magnesium deficiency according to google.

blackleg? but I could not see any colour of black which is strange.

...here is my idea,

if I cut off all the plants above ground and they have already flowered, and dig them whenever I need, will doing this help me beating blight and blackleg?

Hi Bing - it sounds very much like blackleg to me - I had it this year on about 6 plants. I wouldn't recommend composting the haulms though - it's usually safer to burn diseased plant material.

[Anton]

I used my scythe yesterday evening to start cutting off the tops, so there are now just a couple of stalks showing through. I dug up one plant (this is my earlies) which has produced a bountiful but small-sized crop. I suppose they are not going to get any bigger if I cut the tops off and what happens if I don't cut them off, as we tend to leave them there, consuming the potatoes as we required and only lifting the remainders around August?

Anton

[mumofstig]

Have yours already got blight Anton?

The potatoes won't get bigger once the tops are cut, because there's nothing to feed them.
If you have no blight you can leave the tops on and dig them as you need them, as you say.

[Sprouts]

Went down the plot today to put another spray on but got there and it was too late. Already got the dreaded b word.

Put the spray on anyway to try to hold it back a bit. Then going to go and cut the tops off soon

[Anton]

Yes, it looks like blight to me. The leaves shrivelled up and turned brown within the space of a few days. The stalks look perfectly health though. By the way I spray them with that bordeaux mixture a week ago and then a gain last Monday (to no avail, apparently). How long do I have to wait before consuming the potatoes?

Anton