[mrpotatohead]

blight wiped out all of my maincrop plants and second earlies too. i removed the haulms and set them in a pile, as i was too busy at work to get rid of them. last night i piled them up and burned them in a bonfire. a lot still remain, but it was a gooey stinking mess. never had blight before, and it's put me off growing maincrop again. will the tatties left in the ground with a little bit of haulm left be ok for eating do you guys think?

[Mrs Bee]

I believe the thinking is that you leave them in the ground for 2 weeks before you dig them up and they may be OK. Or so Mr B says after he researched it on the net.

Ours had blight and we chopped them off as soon as we spotted it and we have had a very good crop of Juliettes and Charlottes but not so good with the Desiree and we are yet to dig up the Cara so it is finger's crossed at the moment.

[mumofstig]

It depends how badly they were blighted before you chopped the tops off 
You have to hope you've done it before the spuds themselves have started to rot.

I did the same thing a few weeks ago - most of them have been ok, a few were already rotting and smelled disgusting
When you lift them to store check them before you put them in their bags or boxes. Check regularly that none have started rotting as it will quickly spread to other spuds. - the smell gives it away if they have. Bleugh!

[solway cropper]

Once it takes hold blight spreads so quickly that you really have to inspect your crop every day when the conditions for it are right. Got it for the first time this year but managed to rescue the crop by acting quickly. Yield was down but some spuds is better than no spuds.

[Growster...]

I have to thank my aged plot neighbour, who spotted blight on our 'Charlottes'.

There were only a couple of brown marks, but he'd seen them, so they were cut down pronto!

Best crop of spuds we've ever had, so it really does need someone looking out for you - or you looking out for others!

[SG6]

Could try the Sarpo varieties:
    Sarpo Mira
    Sarpo Axona
    Blue Danube

They are supposed to be fairly resistant.

[DD.]

I've just been up to my plot after a couple of months illness followed by a couple of weeks holiday.
The Sarpo Mira are still standing tall and proud, all others totally wiped out, although the tubers on the ones I dug up seem OK, (at the moment!).

[Aidy]

This has been an exceptional year! Never in my lotty lifetime have I seen devastation on the scale we have.

Don't think for one minute this is the norm and I would suggest you carry on growing your mains in the future.

My plot has never been so empty at this time of the year and never have I seen so much water fall from the sky.

Next year will be different, if not then I shall look into rice cultivation  

[DD.]

I agree with Aidy not to give up.

If you gave up growing something after the first time you had a failure, within a few years you'd be growing nothing at all.

[Grubbypaws]

My pink fir apple also seem resistant. Amazing really as at one point they were actually draped by blight ridden vivaldi leaves

[DD.]

That's strange as PFA are rated as very low blight resistance and I've personally found it so. The were the first to knuckle under a few years ago.

http://www.europotato.org/display_description.php?variety_name=Pink%20Fir%20Apple