It's here and got most of my potatoes. Both our earlies Amandine and
Leontine, our second earlies Kestral and maincrop Celine are affected and I
will have to cut all the tops off tomorrow and dispose of them. The other
maincrop Victoria seems to be OK at the moment, it does have some resistance
although I'm not sure about the "new" strain of blight. Our Tomatoes are
also unaffected so they will get some more Bordeaux Mixture ASAP, trouble is
it washes off.
Such a shame because we were getting a huge crop from our earlies, up to
just over 5lbs per plant now. Kestrals have also produced a good crop but it
will be much too early for the maincrops to have done much.
Never have I known Potato Blight so bad and so early, but then I've never
known the ground in this area at this time of year so wet.

-- Regards
Bob Hobden
Posting to this Newsgroup
from the W.of London. UK

Bob Hobden wrote:
Such a shame because we were getting a huge crop from our earlies, up to
just over 5lbs per plant now. Kestrals have also produced a good crop but it
will be much too early for the maincrops to have done much.

Have you pulled up your kestrels already? I am still pulling up the firsts.

Vicky wrote

Bob Hobden wrote:
Such a shame because we were getting a huge crop from our earlies, up to
just over 5lbs per plant now. Kestrals have also produced a good crop but
it
will be much too early for the maincrops to have done much.

Have you pulled up your kestrels already? I am still pulling up the
firsts.

We dug a root up this morning, firstly to see if they were big enough and
secondly Sue needed some larger potatoes today. We are still not even half
way through our earlies which is not surprising considering the crop we have
been getting off each plant.
Went back this afternoon and removed all the tops of everything except the
Victoria which does not seem affected, and sprayed the Tomatoes with
Bordeaux Mixture.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...
It's here and got most of my potatoes. Both our earlies Amandine and
Leontine, our second earlies Kestral and maincrop Celine are affected and
I will have to cut all the tops off tomorrow and dispose of them. The
other maincrop Victoria seems to be OK at the moment, it does have some
resistance although I'm not sure about the "new" strain of blight. Our
Tomatoes are also unaffected so they will get some more Bordeaux Mixture
ASAP, trouble is it washes off.
Such a shame because we were getting a huge crop from our earlies, up to
just over 5lbs per plant now. Kestrals have also produced a good crop but
it will be much too early for the maincrops to have done much.
Never have I known Potato Blight so bad and so early, but then I've never
known the ground in this area at this time of year so wet.

Aargh, I think my earlies have it too. Went down the lottie to find
collapsed yellow stems. dug up the worst two but what to do?
I've signed up for Bligh****ch but as I have a humidity meter to hatch
chicks in an incubator in my spare bedroom, I can tell you that it is 76%
humidity in there as we speak, it was higher yesterday 82.

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 9 Jul 2012 20:25:56 +0100, "Christina Websell"
wrote:


"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...
It's here and got most of my potatoes. Both our earlies Amandine and
Leontine, our second earlies Kestral and maincrop Celine are affected
and
I will have to cut all the tops off tomorrow and dispose of them. The
other maincrop Victoria seems to be OK at the moment, it does have some
resistance although I'm not sure about the "new" strain of blight. Our
Tomatoes are also unaffected so they will get some more Bordeaux Mixture
ASAP, trouble is it washes off.
Such a shame because we were getting a huge crop from our earlies, up to
just over 5lbs per plant now. Kestrals have also produced a good crop
but
it will be much too early for the maincrops to have done much.
Never have I known Potato Blight so bad and so early, but then I've
never
known the ground in this area at this time of year so wet.

Aargh, I think my earlies have it too. Went down the lottie to find
collapsed yellow stems. dug up the worst two but what to do?
I've signed up for Bligh****ch but as I have a humidity meter to hatch
chicks in an incubator in my spare bedroom, I can tell you that it is 76%
humidity in there as we speak, it was higher yesterday 82.

Isn't that normal humidity?

See figure 10.1
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/media/pd...eet_No._17.pdf
--

Martin


Yeah, but the figures I quoted were inside my house - it's a lot more humid
outside as it never seems to stop raining.
I signed up yesterday here http://www.bligh****ch.co.uk/content/bw-Home.asp
to get Smith period text alerts for my postcode area and got a blight alert
today.

Tina

"Bob Hobden" wrote:

It's here and got most of my potatoes. Both our earlies Amandine and
Leontine, our second earlies Kestral and maincrop Celine are affected and I
snip will have to cut all the tops off tomorrow and dispose of them.

Have just returned from a few days away and found my Sharpes Express all
blighted. I've dug up three plants today and cut off the haulms of the
other four for the present. The potatoes I've dug up look okay, but tonight
scraped a couple of potatoes I had dug up about a week ago and found one
was blighted although they also looked okay when dug up, so I don't think
what I've dug today will last more than a few days.

As I doubt they'll be edible whether I leave them in the ground much
longer, or dig them up to use in what will be more than a weeks time, I
wondered about freezing them in some way, rather than waste them, but can
only find conflicting views re freezing. Has anybody any experience of how
to avoid wasting them in this situation? (even if for soup).

Ros

In article ,
Ros Butt wrote:

Have just returned from a few days away and found my Sharpes Express all
blighted. I've dug up three plants today and cut off the haulms of the
other four for the present. The potatoes I've dug up look okay, but tonight
scraped a couple of potatoes I had dug up about a week ago and found one
was blighted although they also looked okay when dug up, so I don't think
what I've dug today will last more than a few days.

As I doubt they'll be edible whether I leave them in the ground much
longer, or dig them up to use in what will be more than a weeks time, I
wondered about freezing them in some way, rather than waste them, but can
only find conflicting views re freezing. Has anybody any experience of how
to avoid wasting them in this situation? (even if for soup).

I wouldn't worry. Blight does not typically transfer down the stems,
so only the surface tubers will be affected immediately. It does
transfer slowly from them, but the chances of them all turning to
mush in the next week or so are low. But don't try to store them.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 12/07/2012 19:37, wrote:
In article ,
Ros Butt wrote:

Have just returned from a few days away and found my Sharpes Express all
blighted. I've dug up three plants today and cut off the haulms of the
other four for the present. The potatoes I've dug up look okay, but tonight
scraped a couple of potatoes I had dug up about a week ago and found one
was blighted although they also looked okay when dug up, so I don't think
what I've dug today will last more than a few days.

As I doubt they'll be edible whether I leave them in the ground much
longer, or dig them up to use in what will be more than a weeks time, I
wondered about freezing them in some way, rather than waste them, but can
only find conflicting views re freezing. Has anybody any experience of how
to avoid wasting them in this situation? (even if for soup).

I wouldn't worry. Blight does not typically transfer down the stems,
so only the surface tubers will be affected immediately. It does
transfer slowly from them, but the chances of them all turning to
mush in the next week or so are low. But don't try to store them.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.


certainly not in poly bags