POTATOE BLIGHT

suey71

Hello.

I have an allotment at Beechpark Clonsilla and lately lots of the potatoes have been struck by blight, or so I was told by another allotmenteer when I asked what was wrong with everyone potatoe plants.(dry/brown and withering).
My potatoes are not that bad "yet"as I treated them with copper sulphate "I think thats what its called", but even still, they dont look the picture of health. plus I've planted some Sarpa vera's late in the season and these look good.

Has anyone else been affected by this blight? and what are you's doing to combat it?
I'm new to this lark and its very down heartening to see this happen.

When is the perfect time to plant potatoes so as to have them ready to lift before blight strikes?

Thanks

Dr Galen

up where I've an allotment (Fingal Allotment in Naul) we've had blight.

I'd sprayed twice before it struck, so was spared the worst to be honest. Some peoples crop was destroyed though. Anything that looked bad, i trimmed and destroyed. Earthed up well around the remains and hoped for the best! Have started lifting a few and apart from an odd one or two, the crop has been good. Prevention is very much the key imho, as once it sets in there seems damn all you can do.

Keep an eye on www.met.ie for the blight warnings, then you'll have a few days to get up and spray. Make sure to remove ALL tubers from the ground when harvesting or pulling up plants as they can re-infect plants next year, even if you've rotated the crop. Anything infected shouldn't be composted either as you might not get enough hea in your pile to kill the blight spores.

suey71

Thanks for the advice Mysticmonkey.
So even if some of my potatoe plants are starting to show signs, are you telling me to cut down everything and dig them up?
I've had a look at my potatoes and they're the size of big marbles:(.
Should the Sarpa vera potatoes be alright, should I spray them too? These are not showing signs of Blight.

Dr Galen

suey71 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice Mysticmonkey.
So even if some of my potatoe plants are starting to show signs, are you telling me to cut down everything and dig them up?
I've had a look at my potatoes and they're the size of big marbles:(.
Should the Sarpa vera potatoes be alright, should I spray them too? These are not showing signs of Blight.

well, I'm no expert, but i was in a similar situation to what your describing. Some small signs of blight on the plants. So I did 2 things.

on plants with a little blight marks, I removed affected branches and destroyed them. Before I did this I earthed up well around the plant to help slow the passage of the blight to the tubers beneath the soil.

On anything that looked in bad shape, I completely removed the top (above ground) part of the plant and destroyed it. Left the tubers in the ground, and put extra soil on top. I checked a random sampling of spuds before doing this, and all seemed to be ok, i.e no rotting. I'm leaving those tubers in the ground and hoping for the best. Bear in mind though, that most of mine were of an edible size, either as normal spuds or as salad potatoes.

As for your other potatoes (Sarpa Vera) well tbh I spray everything every time I spray. Like I said before, it seems prevention is better than cure.

Just as a side note, if you've got tomatoes growing in the vicinity then you'll need to look at spraying them with an appropriate product as it's the same fungus which causes tomato blight. Someone I know has also had a load of toms destroyed this year too because he hadn't thought to spray them too.

suey71

Thanks again I'll do what you've advised.

And yes. I've planted my Tomatoes next to my potatoes and they're starting to look the worst for wear. I've sprayed these at the same time as the potatoes, just to be sure.

Tbh. I don't think this allotmenteering is for me. Nothing I planted seems to be growing properly, way behind all my neighbours crops. The only difference I can see is that they put down lots of well rotted manure and I didn't, due to things being tight and all.

Thanks Mystic. I'll take everything you've said onboard.

Dr Galen

don't lose heart just yet. The first year is always tough and crap and hard work and painful. but the benefits outweigh that.

right now, I'm cooking home made chips made from my own spuds. they taste amazing. yesterday we had cabbage and broccoli. the tomatoes are the sweetest ever, and soooo tasty. takes work and time, but you can do it for a modest budget. Just don't go overboard. Start small and work up to the bigger stuff.

bertie1

Just so you know for next year there are blight resistant brands of potatoe on the market like sarpos. I have british queens , sarpos and roosters , both the queens and the rooster stalks are gone frm blight but the sharpos are still there & green

Rujib1

bertie1 wrote: »

Just so you know for next year there are blight resistant brands of potatoe on the market like sarpos. I have british queens , sarpos and roosters , both the queens and the rooster stalks are gone frm blight but the sharpos are still there & green

I have home guards and roosters in the same plot. I know you shouldn't as the home guards are earlies and a bit prone to blight, whereas the roosters are main crop and supposed to be good against blight.

Anyway, home guard stalks, pretty much blighted, but the spuds are healthy. I find that every year. Stalk goes pretty quickly but the spud seems to survive 95% unscathed.

The roosters are still perfect, even though they are litterally touching the home guards.

Mind you I did spray both lots pretty much weekly right up to 2 week ago.

Since then I just cannot seem to get a few dry hours after work to keep up the spray routine.

Dithane is your only man in my opinion.

R1