Bad advice on blight from Monty?

I listened to Monty on GW this evening getting it all wrong about potatoes with blight.

He yanked the tops out of the ground disturbing the soil which would expose the potatoes to spores. Cut them off neatly with as little disturbance as possible is the usual advice.

He then advised to dig them all up immediatly, thus exposing them to spores again, rather than the standard advice of leaving them in the ground for a couple of weeks to allow any spores on the soil surface to die.

He further advised not growing potatoes in the same bed next year to prevent blight. As far as I know blight does not stay in the soil except in groud keepers. Does anyone grow potatoes in the same bed anyway?

I also wondered at the part of his advice saying ideally burn them, if you can't then take them to your council green waste. Does this not get made into compost by many councils? I don't know if ours does I suspect not, but if I took mine to the council waste, I would have the option of a grass bin, one for prunings and one labelled "other". Would any of those be appropriate for blighted potato haulms? Would the little man in the kiosk know the answer?

I've bagged them up to donate to the council this w/e.

Their compost heap is presumably going to get hot enough to kill everything

That is the hope Growster, but I think it is fairly uncontrolled advice nonetheless.

Yes, Monty got it wrong!
The Potato Council still advise burning blighted potato tops, so until thay change that advice that's what I'll continue to do

You would think that Monty would have the sense to check that what he is telling his band of followers is correct......... shame as he is usually very good.


Our council green waste gets superheated, and so would kill any nasties. It is not available back to us anyway, but used in some other way. Not sure what. Either way, it will not be spreading blight.

We've had blight on adjoining plots recently, so as a precaution, we chopped down the spud haulms, and I've bagged them up to donate to the council this w/e.

Their compost heap is presumably going to get hot enough to kill everything (let's hope it does with things like Japanese Knotweed etc), so I'm sure spores will perish as well.

For the record, it's illegal to move Japanese knotweed