I'm lifting early potatoes now; what should I do with the foliage?

Thinking of the compost bin, I'm fearful of blight. There is no evidence
of blight on the foliage, though I have been spraying with Dithane.

Best regards,

Jon C.

--
Jonathan Campbell www.jgcampbell.com BT48, UK.

On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:22:54 +0100, Jonathan Campbell wrote:

I'm lifting early potatoes now; what should I do with the foliage?

Thinking of the compost bin, I'm fearful of blight. There is no evidence
of blight on the foliage, though I have been spraying with Dithane.

And you're going to eat all that fungicide residue? Yuck.

How many Smith periods have you had recently?

Derek Turner wrote:
On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:22:54 +0100, Jonathan Campbell wrote:

I'm lifting early potatoes now; what should I do with the foliage?

Thinking of the compost bin, I'm fearful of blight. There is no evidence
of blight on the foliage, though I have been spraying with Dithane.

And you're going to eat all that fungicide residue? Yuck.

How many Smith periods have you had recently?

I like the smell of it -- especially in the morning.

However, you make a good point; I had reacted to forecast humid weather.
The Met Office here in Ireland normally issues blight warnings, but none
so far this year.

I suppose earlies harvested before the end of June might normally escape
blight?

Jon C.

--
Jonathan Campbell www.jgcampbell.com BT48, UK.

Jonathan Campbell wrote:


I suppose earlies harvested before the end of June might normally escape
blight?


My French neighbour's potatoes succumbed to blight a few weeks ago. He
has since cut off all the tops and treated them with something. Mine are
still OK. I took great delight in giving him a big bag of my (largest)
early potatoes. :-)

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:07:42 +0100, Jonathan Campbell wrote:

I suppose earlies harvested before the end of June might normally escape
blight?

Yes. June seldom yields Smith periods. Living, as I now do, in Jersey
with a very changeable maritime climate I think it very unlikely we will
have Smith periods. The general rule seems to be 'if you don't like the
weather don't worry: it will change when the tide turns'. Sustained high
temperature /and/ humidity is rare on a small island. Thats probably why
potatoes and tomatoes have been our biggest exports. Sacha?

On 2009-06-16 22:37:07 +0100, Derek Turner said:

On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:07:42 +0100, Jonathan Campbell wrote:

I suppose earlies harvested before the end of June might normally escape
blight?

Yes. June seldom yields Smith periods. Living, as I now do, in Jersey
with a very changeable maritime climate I think it very unlikely we will
have Smith periods. The general rule seems to be 'if you don't like the
weather don't worry: it will change when the tide turns'. Sustained high
temperature /and/ humidity is rare on a small island. Thats probably why
potatoes and tomatoes have been our biggest exports. Sacha?

Sea breezes are healthy things that see off overall 'mugginess', I'd
think. Of course, the mild climate of the islands and Jersey's
north-south slope helped with early tomatoes and potatoes back in the
days before refrigerated container shipping, so their chief competitors
were the Cornish with much the same conditions. Daffs and iris were
also a good market at one time, as were freesias grown under glass and
of course, grapes, hence tomato glasshouses being called vineries to
this day. The weather is certainly changeable - it was colder in
Jersey than in Exeter when we arrived on Friday morning and we put on
sweaters - no, not Jerseys. ;-) And then it became extremely hot
about 2 hours later but with some cloud and showers occasionally and
remained hot all week end. And on boarding the plane, we learned
yesterday that Exeter area had big thunderstorms and lots of rain,
something that missed the CIs altogether. Talking to farming friends
in St Helier yesterday, we were told that this year has been an
outstanding success for the Jersey Royal and that a lot of farmers who
had given up for various semi-political reasons have now bought up land
which is going for frightening sums of money and are going back into
growing potatoes, though not into dairy. We were trying to figure out
how many Royals you'd have to sell to make it worthwhile! BUT another
friend who grows a few vergees of potatoes for his own enjoyment is a
great fan of Dunbar potatoes which do have a fabulous flavour. But he
says they do get blight, even in Jersey, so perhaps the Royal and the
original Jersey Sunrise tom were more resistant?
--
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

Sacha wrote:
On 2009-06-16 22:37:07 +0100, Derek Turner said:

On Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:07:42 +0100, Jonathan Campbell wrote:

I suppose earlies harvested before the end of June might normally
escape blight?

Yes. June seldom yields Smith periods. Living, as I now do, in Jersey
with a very changeable maritime climate I think it very unlikely we
will have Smith periods. The general rule seems to be 'if you don't
like the weather don't worry: it will change when the tide turns'.
Sustained high temperature /and/ humidity is rare on a small island.
Thats probably why potatoes and tomatoes have been our biggest
exports. Sacha?

Sea breezes are healthy things that see off overall 'mugginess', I'd
think. Of course, the mild climate of the islands and Jersey's
north-south slope helped with early tomatoes and potatoes back in the
days before refrigerated container shipping, so their chief
competitors were the Cornish with much the same conditions. Daffs and
iris were also a good market at one time, as were freesias grown
under glass and of course, grapes, hence tomato glasshouses being
called vineries to this day. The weather is certainly changeable -
it was colder in Jersey than in Exeter when we arrived on Friday
morning and we put on sweaters - no, not Jerseys. ;-) And then it
became extremely hot about 2 hours later but with some cloud and
showers occasionally and remained hot all week end. And on boarding
the plane, we learned yesterday that Exeter area had big
thunderstorms and lots of rain, something that missed the CIs
altogether. Talking to farming friends in St Helier yesterday, we
were told that this year has been an outstanding success for the
Jersey Royal and that a lot of farmers who had given up for various
semi-political reasons have now bought up land which is going for
frightening sums of money and are going back into growing potatoes,
though not into dairy. We were trying to figure out how many Royals
you'd have to sell to make it worthwhile! BUT another friend who
grows a few vergees of potatoes for his own enjoyment is a great fan
of Dunbar potatoes which do have a fabulous flavour. But he says
they do get blight, even in Jersey, so perhaps the Royal and the
original Jersey Sunrise tom were more resistant? --

Most enjoyable post! Welcome home

Jonathan Campbell wrote:
I'm lifting early potatoes now; what should I do with the foliage?

Thinking of the compost bin, I'm fearful of blight. There is no evidence
of blight on the foliage, though I have been spraying with Dithane.

Best regards,

Jon C.


I always put my potato foliage in the compost and can't say as I've
noticed any problems. There is very little I don't compost. Even long
rooted docks and thistles go into the composters. Nothing much seems to
survive the composting process. I have those open bottomed black plastic
compost bins and they get very hot; especially with a good mix of
materials to compost and some pee to accelerate the process.

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

David in Normandy wrote:
Jonathan Campbell wrote:
I'm lifting early potatoes now; what should I do with the foliage?
[...]

I always put my potato foliage in the compost and can't say as I've
noticed any problems. There is very little I don't compost. Even long
rooted docks and thistles go into the composters. Nothing much seems to
survive the composting process. I have those open bottomed black plastic
compost bins and they get very hot; especially with a good mix of
materials to compost and some pee to accelerate the process.


Thanks. That's encouraging --- it seemed a pity to put them in the black
bin.

I'm not sure my compost bin cooks that efficiently, but I'll follow your
advice.

Jon C.

--
Jonathan Campbell www.jgcampbell.com BT48, UK.