[Brassica Blaz]

hi all.can anyone tell me whats happening with me taters!.after looking really healthy and harvesting my spuds for a couple of weeks, a couple of plants have suddenly yellowed and died off .ive dug them up and the spuds seem fine enough but its a bit strange that they've gone like this when the others are all still nice and green! any thoughts?

[AnneB]

Sounds like another case of blackleg.  Lots about this year. 

[aelf]

The plants may just have come to their natural end. It's normal for the haulms to die back at the end of their growing season, leaving the spuds in the ground to harvest.

[seaside]

As above, some plants have to be the first to die back. My earlies are doing the same.
Reminds me of Silent Running, the brilliant hippie sci fi film that got me into gardening.
There was Bruce Dern perplexed and mortified in the middle of space when his space craft forest of trees ( the last trees left in the known universe ) were dropping their leaves and dying,  with no explanation other than disease.
Eventually it dawned on him (literally) that he was hiding behind a planet that shielded him, and his precious trees, from the sun. He was just experiencing a "Winter". They don't make films like that any more

[mumofstig]

Depends what variety they are, and when they were planted, whether they should be dying off yet or not.

If the stems are rotten at the bases - then it is Blackleg 

[DD.]

I'll go with AnneB and blackleg.

Yellowing with old age is not a sudden thing and they usually do this together. (Within the same variety).

You need to have a look at the affected stem, not the spud for the signs. It may affect tubers, but not necessarily.

[pavery026]

I seem to have the same problem too. I've never heard of blackleg before, I dug the plant up and the tubers were fine. Is there anything I should be doing to control this and will it be ok to eat the potatoes? The varieties I planted were Charlotte and kestral, but I couldn't tell you which type is infected as a stupidly dropped the tubers and got them mixed up.

[ghost61]

Charlotte is resistant to blackleg. Cut one of the affected plant's tubers in half. If the flesh is greyish or discoloured, it's blackleg. Only thing to do is get rid of the affected plant as the disease can spread.

[DD.]

You cannot necessarily tell from the tubers. It is sometimes only evident after they've been stored.

The blackening/rotting at the base of the stems is the sure sign.

[mumofstig]

Charlotte is resistant to blackleg. Cut one of the affected plant's tubers in half.

Then why is it suffering the most from the 3 varieties I planted 

[ghost61]

It could be eelworm and not blackleg.

[mumofstig]

It could be eelworm

but it's not!
Leaves went yellow and curly, stems were black and soggy at the base  - but potatoes are clean as a whistle 
Just that they could have done with being a bit bigger

[ghost61]

It would seem that resistant doesn't mean that they won't get it then!

[DD.]

That's what we always stress when it comes to carrot fly resistant carrots.

[angelavdavis]

I have got this on my Red Duke of Yorks - I am a bit gutted as the tubers went in late due to taking over a new plot which needed cultivating before the tats could go in.  Dug out a couple of the plants obviously affected in the hope it might stop the spread....  We'll see.