[ulsterfairy]

Hi all, I'm currently obsessed with potatoes and their pests! I have discovered I have eelworm (foliage dying back early, small spuds and orangey cysts on the roots). I want advise and info about these and their management plus r the spuds safe to eat. It's an old plot that has been neglected by previous tenant for 5 yrs or so.
Thanks

[JayG]

You have my sympathies, being one of the very few people on here (other than me!) to post about suffering from this nuisance!

It is very persistent in the soil and can take many years before the dormant cysts disappear even in the absence of the host potato, so it's something you really have to learn to live with.

The British potato database lists details of all spuds available and includes a rating of their eelworm resistance, although there are two distinct strains of the pest and even high resistance doesn't mean that they are immune.

I just grow first early potatoes, and plant them a little later than normal so they are up and running ASAP to minimise their exposure to attack. Rotation is obviously also important to avoid really stoking up the numbers in the soil, as of course is destroying the roots to ensure you don't recycle the problem via your compost heap.

Although they always show signs of eelworm attack I still get good crops (Lady Chrystl and Pentland Javelin for the last few years) although there is no way of knowing how much better they would be without the pest.

The cysts mainly affect the roots rather than the spuds themselves but in any event they are perfectly safe to eat. 

[Potty Plotty Lotty]

Sowing mustard as a green manure after you harvest the potatoes can apparently help in the management of eelworm as well.

http://www.allotment-garden.org/fertilizer/green-manures.php

[ulsterfairy]

HiThank you :-)

We took on the plot to grow our own food 4 our bby daughter so trying to learn as much as possible. I will def take your advise! It's good to know u have managed to still grow spuds. I think the 1st and 2nd earlies will def be a must next year.  Tho I'm a bit gutted cos I was planning to grows loads of types of them to help cultivate the ground! How late did u put them in? I have just come across an article
saying growing marigolds on the bed the year before planting spuds helps?! I'm currently working out my crop rotations for the next few years and think I may have space to try this in the present spud bed.

Thanks again for the response! I have to he honest I was panicing a bit!
Potty plotty lotty thanks I will def look into that I think it helps manage wireworms as well?! Which I also have! I will go have a nose at that link as well ta

[sunshineband]

Re your query on wireworm: the best way to deal with these is to dig over the ground regularly one spade deep, and take out every single one you see without fail.

Do this every week for a month

Then spear some old potatoes (anything will do) on wooden kebab sticks and 'plant' these about 6 ins down. Leave for a week and dig them up. remove every wireworm in the nearby soil and those in the potatoes too.

Do this again until you have none left.

Tedious, but well worth while.

I did the whole full size plot when we first got it - it was deemed unusable at the time and experts from the university were called in to suggest solutions.

Got the plot free for the first 18m as I said I would have it, wireworms and all 

Whole clearance took about 2 months, and as soon as one area was cleared, I built a raised and bed and got planting (Had a ground plan of what was going where  )

Good luck with the eel worm, which fortunately I have not had to deal with (touch wood  )

[JayG]

I planted mine in the first week of April rather than mid-late March (this also helps if you get late frosts and have run out of soil to earth them up with, the downside of course being that you won't set any records for an early crop!)

[Salmo]

Growing earlies is only effective if they are lifted before the cysts form. The cysts are females which attach themselves to a root and become bloated with their eggs. You will have to research but I think it is 3 months between planting potatoes, which stimulates hatching, and forming egg containing cysts. i.e. lift by early June.

Tomatoes are also suseptable.
Mustard induces eeelworm to hatch but they cannot breed on its roots.
Rotation of 4 years, more if heavy infestation.
Resistant varieties

http://www.bhaf.org.uk/page_id__238_path__0p3p47p.aspx

PS Sunshineband. Yours are wireworm. Eelworm are tiny and can only be seen under a microscope. Only the damage and cysts usually give a clue to their presence.

[ulsterfairy]

Again thanks all :-), our plot had been offered to and declined by most of the other plot holders! Being so overgrown and full of pests as im discovering. I am hoping tho that with hard work and patience over the next few years it will be awesome :-) . My hubby and I have measured the plot and are planning the size shape and location of beds at moment and. So I could clear and work on sections as u suggest to deal with the wireworms.
Jayg I'm making note in a diary now to remind myself come spring and to lift in June. Do earlies store?
I'm going to order some mustard seed this evening may as well give it a go :-)
Salmo I think I can manage a 6 year rotation at a push - I dunno were I've read it but 6 years was mentioned in really bad cases (dunno if mine is yet but if I can do it I may as well.

[sunshineband]

PS Sunshineband. Yours are wireworm. Eelworm are tiny and can only be seen under a microscope. Only the damage and cysts usually give a clue to their presence.

Yep, got that  

There was also a comment about wireworms as well that I was responding to, towards the end of ulsterfairy's post  




edit to clarify quote

[Salmo]

The equivalent of DEFRA used to regulate potatoes to 1 year in 3. If cyst eelworm was discovered the land was put under licence and not allowed to grow potatoes. Usually after 6 years the farmer could apply to grow, soil samples were taken, and the number of cysts counted. Only if the number of cysts had dropped to a managable level was the farmer allowed to grow potatoes again.

Much of the land in the Cambridgeshire fens got infested during WW2 when pressures and rewards tempted farmers to grow in too close rotations.

PS Sorry sunshineband. Usefull information.

[ulsterfairy]

Awesome  thanks again all for your advise and comments, I feel much better now!! I really was panicing.   

[ulsterfairy]

hello all
I have another question regarding eelworm!!!

I was planning to grow winter onions shallots and garlic about 4 foot away from the potato bed with the dreaded eelworm.  I have no clue what has been planted where previously but will assume as some random spuds have been poppng up everywhere that eelworm is well and truly resident in my plot.  So should I avoid growing onions this winter and try the mustard as green manure and be patient and wait until spring?? Are onions susceptible to the same eelworms as spuds??

Also I have found that there is a chemical released from marigolds that fools the eelworms into remaining dormant?! Companion planting here I come!!

Again thanks

[Salmo]

Potato eelworms are specific to potatoes/tomatoes and will not affect onions or any other crop.

Try to avoid growing onions where they have been grown recently. The main disease of onions is white rot which is very persistant in the soil. If your plot rotation has been neglected enough to allow potato eelworm to build up it may also have onion white rot lurking in the soil. Ask around and try and find out what was grown where.

[ulsterfairy]

thank u salmo.

 i will def find ouut especially as we are planning to make the final beds this week!!
I have asked 1 neighbour who couldnt quite remember but I will check with others.