[angelcakes]

Does anyone know why a few of my potato plants are wilting they are green and have no yellowing or black spots on the leaves, but the bottom leaves have wilted and the top ones are curling. It hasn't rained here for weeks but we have watered every other day and the rest of the potato plants are ok. Any ideas? Have got a photo but can't work out how to attach it!- See below have just worked it out!!! Do i need to pull the affected ones out and burn them?

[flitwickone]

pots will be fine


expert along shortly

[Yorkie]

Welcome to the site 

It's a little difficult to tell from that piccie, can you take a close up of the affected plant?

In the meantime, have you or anyone been spraying any weedkiller nearby?  Did you put any manure on the site?

[angelcakes]

No weedkiller and no sign of problem on surrounding plots just the odd plant or two on ours no manure either

[NASH]

I have had a few go like this and when pulling them up they are very thin and black stems from the seed potato so I think it is blackleg.

[angelcakes]

I thought it might be that too I had it one year when we had loads of rain but them stems are fine no sign of rotting. Really odd! I wondered if it was under or overwatering but then they'd all be like that?

[Paul Plots]

The next-neighbour looks fine. Is it just the odd one or two?

[shokkyy]

It does look exactly the way my spuds looked last year just before they went down with blackleg. I think in the early stages you just get stunted growth, and then the stem starts to rot in the later stages.

[angelcakes]

If its blackleg should I pull them now, cut the tops off or leave them? A few plants are showing signs of wilting. Is it caused by overwatering?

[Paul Plots]

If its blackleg should I pull them now, cut the tops off or leave them? A few plants are showing signs of wilting. Is it caused by overwatering?

If you are worried about leaving them in place then lift just one. You can see what the crop is like and check the whole plant over at the same time.

It might help you make a decision. 

[angelcakes]

Thanks for all your advice you were right. I pulled up a couple of the worst affected plants. It does look like blackleg stem was brown below the soil & one potato had the beginnings of rot on it. Good news is rest of crop on plant was small in size but delicious! Bad news is the other 30 plants were drooping too! . Read up these are sante which are suseptable to this. My other plants that look good are resistant to it. Looks like we'll be having baby new santes to eat over the next few weeks! I think we've been overwatering in this very dry spell-some of our onions have gone mouldy and my french beans look like they have foot rot!

[shokkyy]

Oddly enough, it was Sante that I lost to blackleg last year.

[Paul Plots]

If you have lots of time and access to running water it's not that hard to get carried away with watering.

A good drenching and then stop is better than very regular watering. It keeps the plants alive and encourages the roots to develop in search of water.

Despite extremely low (if any) rainfall for the last few months I have watered my spuds just twice with some getting none at all!

The tops look healthy (apart from where the fox cubs have played on them) and I'm hoping to find something to eat below. 

[mumofstig]

when I dug a couple of PJs that hadn't been watered at all the small potatoes had some give in them as if the plant had withdrawn some water back from the tubers