BLIGHT aaarrrggghhhhh

[colhut]

And... when do you earthup your potatoes? is it when they flower or just when there is lots of greenery???

Well, to say opinion is divided is a huge understatement. I tried to find a difinative answer haveing not done potatoes before. eventually I went with the opinion on the RHS web site, which was to earth up once when about 20cm of growth was showing and this seems to have worked ok for us. But I came across advice foe earthing up anywhere form as soon as shoots show, to when flowers arrive, from earthing up once, to a little bit very often. Oh, and at least one place that said don't bother to earth up at all.

So I think the answer is that its not all that critical and pick what seems sensible to you. earthing up many times seemed like too much work for me, and earthing them up as soon as they show seemed a bit mean (so I let them have some sunshine first )

[hedgewizard]

Another post just reminded me to ask this. If you grow potatoes above a certain height you don't get blight... is there a chance that if you are almost at this height there is limited danger???

Great idea - I'm growing mine on a stool next year!

[ina]

And... when do you earthup your potatoes? is it when they flower or just when there is lots of greenery???

I think, if you do it by the book you do it several times, whenever the greens are 10-15cm high. I've only done it once so far; meant to do it again the other day (not a lot of opportunities at the moment because of the frequent rain) - and a partridge hen with her 6 chicks had decided that my tattie ridges were a nice place to hide! Needless to say, the ridging up is still to be done.

Anyway, blight: Had a lot the first year I grew tatties here. Since then I go for blight resistant varieties and I've had no more problems. I've also grown the potatoes in all sorts of places in the garden - flower border etc - as far away from the usual veggie plot as possible. That has all helped. This year I'm trying pink fir apple for the first time - keep fingers crossed I don't get blight again, as they are not terribly resistant!

[SueSteve]

I have just come back from the allotment, we have blight
It wasn't that noticeable at first.
The have the brown and yellow patches from the rain and wind, so a quick gance and they were no different.
I was just about to leave when I noticed next doors potatoes looking a bit sad, on closer inspection I could see round brown blobs, the stalks were brown and looked a bit slimy and the underneath of the leaves around the brown patch had a fine white powder.
I then went back for a closer look at mine, and yes, we had the same thing, but I think we have caught it early on. There are only one or two brown patches on each plant, the largest is the size of a penny.
We have chopped the tops off, and hope it saves them.
I never knew what blight looked like, I have seen pics on the net, and heard about it, but thought I wouldn't know it if I got it. Actually once I saw it, I knew, it's as if something clicked about everything that I had read.
To describe it to someone who doesn't know what they are looking for, use the description above, and also I'd say that the brown leaves looked like they had been burned, dried brown and started to shrivel.
Sue

[hedgewizard]

With the crappy weather this summer I've seen all sorts of fungal nasties that we normally get spared from. I'm off to deal with chocolate spot on the broadies this morning!

[burek]

sorry to hear that, suesteve
personally I am on the internet right now trying to work out if what we have is blight, rain/wind probs, or just that they are ready to harvest
(It's my first year at this, as you can tell!). We've had plenty of sun here although May was nice and rainy for the garden, but we are exposed to a lot of wind.

Anyone know if blight makes the stalks start to look brown/blackish in patches?

[red]

yeh I'm new to potato growing.. and wonder about the difference in looks between blight and naturally dying down .... ours look a tad crispy and have black areas.. but then they did ever since that late frost.. and the stems are unslimey and the spuds fine...

[SueSteve]

Anyone know if blight makes the stalks start to look brown/blackish in patches?

Yes, this sounds like blight, chop the stalks off as soon as possible before they reach the soil, otherwise it will turn your spuds to black smelly mush.
There are a few suggested ways to deal wth blight, but they all have risks (of the clight still getting to the tubers if it doesn't work).
I just chopped all my tops off, and then harvested them a couple of days later, as I didn't want to risk losing them. All of mine were ok, none of the tubers had blight, but some had been eaten by wireworms!!
Some say spray every 2 weeks with a horsetail decoction. Or Bordeaux/copper or Dithane fungicide.
Some say remove infected leaves as you see them (but you need to be around most days to do that) it can move fast.
One lady at our allotments thought hers were ok, returned 2 days later, the tops had shrivelled, and her tubers already gone nasty, whether she just didn't notice that she had it, or whether it really moved that fast I dont know.
I have spoken to a potato specialist nursery (as ours are high resistant) he said that the resistance doesnt seem to have counted for anything this year!

[burek]

thanks for the reply, suesteve
my confusion with the spuds is that the brown on the leaves are not circles and come in from the edges of the leaves, and also this is not spreading as quickly as bligh is supposed to. It's very very gradual

Perhaps I should just cut them back now to play it safe!

[SueSteve]

The brown on my leaves came in from the sides, it looked almost like they had 'scorched', they then started to dry and go 'crispy' like.
I think the speed at which the blight spreads could be down to the resistance of the type of potatoes that you are growing.
What type do you have?
There are only one type of potato that I know of that is truely blight resistant (SAPRO series), they have taken a long time to produce, and they are not supposed to taste as good!
Good luck!
Sue

[burek]

It WAS blight!
I dug down under the worst plant and found lots of good potatoes but the one closest to the plant was all black mush.
Culled and burnt now. Am leaving the spuds under there (unless we fancy eating any of course!) for a couple of weeks as recommended.

Thanks for that last posting suesteve - my blight happened exactly like that.

Ah well. At least we have potatoes, if on the smallish side. Not bad for a first year.

[SueSteve]

Hi Burek,
I'm glad you have you have got it sorted and that you have some good potatoes. Just remember it is good to leave them if you can, teh skins harden and they store better, but if the blight has gone down below the ground it could be attacking the tubers, and you could end up with mush.
Good Luck :)
Sue

[red]

bum
now the tomatoes in my greenhouse have blight. no mistaking it.

read everywhere you are fairly safe in a greenhouse... not this year obviously

[SueSteve]

I dont think anything is safe this year!
My Toms atthe lottie have it, but home is ok at the mo!

[pskipper]

All my spuds and tomatos are blighted Will see if any of the spuds are savable but little hope Good year for courgettes though!