Potato blight in May, or just frost damage?

[Ellesbells]

I wandered down the garden to check on my veggie patch today, and some of my potato plants are looking a bit dishevelled. They were perfectly fine yesterday but I am concerned that it could be blight? Is it too early for blight, or could it just be this horrible cold weather has given them a headache?

We have had wind, hail, rain and very chilly nights this week!

[JoaoLeaftide]

Mid-May is pretty early for blight, especially with the weather you're describing. Frost damage looks very similar though — blackened tips, wilting, that dishevelled look. If it's frost the damage will be confined to the newer growth at the top and the plant usually recovers fine once it warms up. Blight tends to spread and you'd see brown patches with a yellow halo on the leaves. Worth keeping an eye on it for a few days before panicking.

[MelanieSW]

Our allotment WhatsApp group just had a panicked discussion about blight as well, but it is pretty certain that this is "just" cold and wind damage from the cold nights recently. It doesn't look nice, but usually the potatoes recover.
Also other plants have been affected on our plots - the nasturtiums that had already started to flower are mostly dead.

[ChingfordHarry]

I'd guess frost damage. The leaves on my French and runner beans have been frosted this week, as have my kiwiberries.

It's very early for blight, as @JoaoLeaftide says.

[Vince G]

I wandered down the garden to check on my veggie patch today, and some of my potato plants are looking a bit dishevelled. They were perfectly fine yesterday but I am concerned that it could be blight? Is it too early for blight, or could it just be this horrible cold weather has given them a headache?

We have had wind, hail, rain and very chilly nights this week!

Whereabouts are you Ellesbells? I'm in the usually mild Suffolk and on Monday night we had a frost. It nipped the spuds of my neighbour at the allotment. My plot is a little more sheltered but a couple still got nipped.

[Ellesbells]

Whereabouts are you Ellesbells? I'm in the usually mild Suffolk and on Monday night we had a frost. It nipped the spuds of my neighbour at the allotment. My plot is a littel more cheltered but a couple still got nipped.

I'm in a village in West Berkshire, and it has been pretty chilly, I've lit the log burner most nights recently to make it feel a little more cosy! Everything is very much behind in the vegetable patch, my garlic looks like it's already giving up and despite lots of flowers earlier on, my damson and cherry trees don't have a lot of fruit so I think they have all been hit by the weather.

i'm now 99.99% sure the potatoes have just been affected by the cold weather, for which I am very grateful!

[Vince G]

Ah sorry to hear that. I haven't looked at my cherry or greengage actually, like yours they had plenty of flowers, so I'll have to investigate tomorrow.

Garlic is looking good though, in fact the extra early wight had started to bolt so I dug it all up yesterday, some quite big bulbs.

[ChingfordHarry]

Garlic is looking good though, in fact the extra early wight had started to bolt so I dug it all up yesterday, some quite big bulbs.

gosh. I don't expect to pull my extra early wight for another few weeks. When do you put it in the ground?

[Vince G]

Halloween is my planting date for garlic Harry, no reason other than it's a date I can remember each year (others include St Pats for early potatoes, April fools for maincrop potatoes, end of May BH for direct sown climbing beans, etc....)

The garlic (and onions) has had a monthly dressing of allium feed to give them the best chance as I get fed up getting weedy bulbs.