[bean there, dug that]

The history of the plot is that it was once huge and got chopped up to create 4 new plots. It would seem that the quarter I've got was the previous plot holders potato patch. The upshot is there are plants appearing all over the show despite it having a jolly good dig over. Apart from the hassle of chasing the plants around with a spade are there any more concerns? I was wondering if there's a chance they could be harbouring disease? And, if so, is there anything I should be doing? 

[GrannieAnnie]

I've got some coming in from last year.  I just hoe the tops off. I'm not going to spoil anything else by trying to dig them up.  and I don't think, (but I'm no expert) that if something else is growing above them that any disease would damage whatever it is.

[diggerjoe]

On a posive note - I was glad to see some leftovers produce good green growth in an area that I had manured late last year and intended for beans as we have had cases of the dreaded hormone manure and I had used it and it has infected half a row of spuds else wher on the plot so to see these coming up unaffected was a relief I ve left about three at strategic places to to check but beans seem to be ok so far.

[Iain@JBA]

All you can do as said above is pull the stems and break them if you want to avoid damage to the rest of the crops. We spot spray them with roundup to kill the growth off.

[zazen999]

Iain - do you grow potatoes in all your beds? If so, how do you know which is new potato and which is old?

Just interested, I just pull these up these days after seeing someone had introduced a disease into their soil from old potatoes and the whole lottie lost their spuds.

[Trillium]

We're not prone to blight here, so I leave the volunteers to mature. I often find that they produce nicer and more potatoes than the planted ones.
If you'd like the potatoes and they don't have noticeable blight, then you can leave them. Blighted seeds simply won't produce anything so you don't have that worry.

[Iain@JBA]

Good question zazen. We can only plant potatoes in a field once every 5 years so that take care of most of the volunteer potatoes. When we go back to a field we have detailed records of what was grown in each area of the field and we plant a different variety so that we can see the difference in the foliage when eveything grows. Normally the rogue spuds grow in between the drill and are easy to spot and are either dug out or spot sprayed. That is what we are busy doing now but this year there are hardly any rogues

[zazen999]

Makes sense Iain - thanks for that. 

Oh, to not have blight. Or the threat of blight. I check every leaf that looks slightly 'wrong'.....perhaps I need to just chill out!!!