When picking veg for showing yesterday, a farmer type person saw our potato
plot, and said he thinks the potatoes have blight. The plants are yellowing
and dying off, with brown and black spots on the leaves. The same happened
last year, and the potatoes were mostly fine. Is this blight, or are the
plants just dying off (which is what we thought last year)? If it is
blight, what do we do now?

Cheers

Janet

On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 09:05:50 +0100, "Janet & Tim Costidell"
wrote:

Is this blight, or are the
plants just dying off (which is what we thought last year)?
I've had blight last year and the year before. No yellowing, just a
very rapid blackening of the green. Check www.potatogrowers.com to see
if there is blight in your area at the moment. We haven't had any for
over a month now in the East Midlands. My _guess_ (without seeing your
crop) is that you are right and he is wrong - but then, so might I be!
If it is
blight, what do we do now?
remove the haulms (tops) now and burn them. Leave the tubers alone for
a week before harvesting.

--
Derek Turner

Outlook Express is worth precisely what you paid for it.


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On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 11:05:17 +0100, Derek Turner
wrote:

Check www.potatogrowers.com to see
if there is blight in your area at the moment.

sorry, that should be www.potatocrop.com
--
Derek Turner

Outlook Express is worth precisely what you paid for it.


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In article ,
Derek Turner wrote:
On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 09:05:50 +0100, "Janet & Tim Costidell"
wrote:

Is this blight, or are the
plants just dying off (which is what we thought last year)?

I've had blight last year and the year before. No yellowing, just a
very rapid blackening of the green. Check www.potatogrowers.com to see
if there is blight in your area at the moment. We haven't had any for
over a month now in the East Midlands. My _guess_ (without seeing your
crop) is that you are right and he is wrong - but then, so might I be!

Blight certainly can cause yellowing, but it would be flabberghasting
if you had an infection just starting now! The humidity has been low
for a month, and blight needs high humidity for transmission.

It is almost certainly that the plants are dying off because of a lack
of water and high temperatures. Potatoes do that! My Bute Blues went
some time back and my King Edwards went some weeks back - I have just
dug both, and they are NOT blighted. My Champion is still green, so
I have left it.

If it is
blight, what do we do now?

remove the haulms (tops) now and burn them. Leave the tubers alone for
a week before harvesting.

I would spray with Bordeax mixture. If it is blight, it will slow the
infection. If it is not, it will do no harm.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 25 Aug 2003 11:23:22 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:

Blight certainly can cause yellowing, but it would be flabberghasting
if you had an infection just starting now! The humidity has been low
for a month, and blight needs high humidity for transmission.

See my separate post about tomatoes. I'm SURE it is blight; the fruit
are affected too, so the lack-of-rain theory is not infallible, though
we have had drizzle here in the early hours for the last 4 days.

Pam in Bristol

In article ,
Pam Moore wrote:
On 25 Aug 2003 11:23:22 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:

Blight certainly can cause yellowing, but it would be flabberghasting
if you had an infection just starting now! The humidity has been low
for a month, and blight needs high humidity for transmission.

See my separate post about tomatoes. I'm SURE it is blight; the fruit
are affected too, so the lack-of-rain theory is not infallible, though
we have had drizzle here in the early hours for the last 4 days.

That could cause the necessary high humidity, but I don't know how
tomatoes behave w.r.t. blight.

Ignore the "crop rotation" solution - blight overwinters on many
common weeds, and is borne by the wind. I had Pink Fir Apple wiped
out one year, and had no trouble on other varieties in subsequent
years (though I do spray, erratically).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick wrote in message:

That could cause the necessary high humidity, but I don't know how
tomatoes behave w.r.t. blight.

The same but quicker, the plants go black and nasty within a couple of days
of the first signs.

Only our red main crop spuds, Stemster, are still in the ground as their
hulms haven't yet started to turn brown. The others, Kestral (Second Early)
and Malin (Main Crop) are already up and sacked, and an excellent crop they
are too, about the best ever. Never tried Malin before and we are impressed.
Also grew some "Juliette" from some left over that Sue bought in Sainsbury's
and those have proved good too, better taste than the same from the
supermarket and still "new" size even though the hulms died. If I can't find
some seed spuds of this next season I might just buy some from the same
source again.

--
Regards
Bob

Use a useful Screen Saver...
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
and find intelligent life amongst the stars, there's bugger all down here.

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"Bob Hobden" wrote in message ...
Also grew some "Juliette" from some left over that Sue bought in Sainsbury's and those have proved good too,
better taste than the same from the supermarket and still "new" size even though the hulms died. If I can't find
some seed spuds of this next season I might just buy some from the same source again.

Marshalls sell it - we've grown it for a few years. Our earliest maincrops are just going down now, Kestrel died
down a while ago, the latest planted spuds are still well in flower - going to do another (probably last) blight
spray tomorrow.

Rod