Potato Blight

pconn062

So I have a question about potato blight. How do people feel about spraying for blight? I generally try to use only organic methods in my vegetable garden and avoid using pesticides etc. However I am reluctant to possibly lose my potato crop to blight. There is a blight warning on Met Eireann at the moment and I recently purchased some Bayer potato blight control. However I'm a bit torn about using it as it seems quite harmful.

I have a substantial amount of potatoes growing and some of them are blight resistant Sarpos and Setanta, however a lot of the rest of them would be susceptible to blight.

Lastly, if you were to spray, when would people generally start?

Any thoughts appreciated.

mickdw

It will completely destroy your crop if you dont spray.

pconn062

mickdw wrote: »

It will completely destroy your crop if you dont spray.

Yes that's what I'm afraid of. Just all the warnings about being dangerous to aquatic and human life on the package put me off!

Zapperzy

I've sprayed mine with copper sulphate and washing soda

SouthWesterly

Zapperzy wrote: »

I've sprayed mine with copper sulphate and washing soda

I picked some up this afternoon. Didn't know about the washing soda. ( the shop did)

Will be spraying tonight.
Also going to do my artichoke, oca and mashua as they are tubers

Zapperzy

SouthWesterly wrote: »

I picked some up this afternoon. Didn't know about the washing soda. ( the shop did)

Will be spraying tonight.
Also going to do my artichoke, oca and mashua as they are tubers

It was my grandparents that told me, it's an old mixture I believe.

50g copper sulphate & 60g washing soda into 5L of water, shake and spray every 10 days. That's what I was told.

Stephen93

Great suggestions so far.

Usually if you are spraying and have a site you plant year after year you should start spraying as soon as leaves are visible.

An alternative to this is to keep mounding up your potatoes and burying foliage which will reduce risk of blight til they pop up again.

Best thing I've found if you don't want to spray is plant first earlies as soon as available and cover them with fleece at night. Usually harvest may june time and can avoid blight that way.

Zapperzy

Zapperzy wrote: »

It was my grandparents that told me, it's an old mixture I believe.

50g copper sulphate & 60g washing soda into 5L of water, shake and spray every 10 days. That's what I was told.

What is washing soda? Is it regular machine wash powder?

SouthWesterly

TheTorment wrote: »

What is washing soda? Is it regular machine wash powder?

No, it's crystals. Helps thee blue stone stick to the leaves

SouthWesterly

Zapperzy wrote: »

It was my grandparents that told me, it's an old mixture I believe.

50g copper sulphate & 60g washing soda into 5L of water, shake and spray every 10 days. That's what I was told.

1 was told 75g CS & 100g WS to 5 litres of water

MacDanger

Is the current weather suitable for blight? It's my first time planting spuds and I'd prefer not to lose them.

Once it starts, is your crop f*cked?

Bought a 20kg bag of sulphate of iron and a 20kg back of Hydrated Lime (builders lime) today. Will mix with water and begin spraying this evening

pconn062

MacDanger wrote: »

Is the current weather suitable for blight? It's my first time planting spuds and I'd prefer not to lose them.

Once it starts, is your crop f*cked?

It's a bit too windy today for spraying, will be hard to get it to stick. No your crop is not ruined if you catch it early. The issue is if you miss the leaf blight it could develop into tuber blight and then you're in trouble. If you're going to spray I would do it the first chance I got.