I've got blight...

[RobintheBobin]

Oh I've only got an ickle allotment so all in all about 25 plants

Suppose it leaves space for more plants to go in...

[Shadylane]

Commisserations, that so pap. If you've not been watering yours is it possible that his splishy splashing about caused his to get it and then it spread to yours? Does he water all over the plants or close to the ground. Might be worth having a subtle and discreet word in his ear maybe.

[RobintheBobin]

No he waters close to the ground; there are other peeps with it too so must be spreading - it is a very windy site.

I was wondering if blight lives in the water trough as sometimes I "dip 'n water" as opposed to using the tap...

[Two_Sheds]

Update on the 'blight'; I dug up the Pentlin Javelin ...and the stem was all gooey and black/brown.

Oh, yuck. Bad luck there.

I can't upload my photos as they are on my phone and the technology eludes me
.

You can either:
- send them to a Flickr account (or similar)
- connect your phone to your PC with a little cable

[Nicos]

.....or e-mail them to another Grape who can post them for you
( don't ask me - cos I still can't reduce mine enough to post!)

[womble]

You can sometimes save the crop by cutting off all the top growth before it spreads down to the tubors and leave them underground.

They certainly won't store once dug up though.

I'd nicely like to dispute that.

Last year I did just that and stored them all winter, in fact I used some of them as seed potatoes this year.

It makes sense, yes if they've got blight, then of course they won't store, but if they haven't, then surely they are the same as normal blight free plants?

[Nicos]

I think in your case womble, you must have caught the spuds before the blight tracked down to the tubers.
I'd say 'good timing' on your half to be honest.

I'm happy though to be corrected- again!!

[teakdesk]

Update on the 'blight'; I dug up the Pentlin Javelin plant which looks the worst and the stem was all gooey and black/brown. There were very few potatoes. My entire crop is starting to get affected as is my neighbours' potatoes

It is not blight.

I've had the same on 5 of mine over the last 4 weeks.

If it was blight the whole crop would go down in 24 hours or so.


I've not bothered chasing down exactly which fungus it is as I won't spray it.

But it is not blight.

If it was blight and it had gone down the stem as you say then a tuber cut open will confirm it.

[womble]

I think in your case womble, you must have caught the spuds before the blight tracked down to the tubers.
I'd say 'good timing' on your half to be honest.

Yes, but that's the whole point of cutting off the haulms and letting the tubers sit in the ground for another 2 or 3 weeks.

If they then haven't got blight, then they shouldn't get it. The blight spores should all be dead on the surface of the soil as they need living material to survive on.

The thing I've found about blight in spuds, is that if you have it, act straight away, no mucking about trying to cut bits off for more than a few hours, it never works anyway on potatoes, the way it can work on tomatoes.

Cut the haulms off straight away and save your crop, there literally is no time to waste.

[Nicos]

Cut the haulms off straight away and save your crop, there literally is no time to waste.

Yup- I'd go with that too

( although when the spuds are very tiny and you have a lage area put over to spuds, sometimes it's worth trying to prevent the spread by spraying- and hanging on a couple of weeks to see what happens).

I've found it tends to start in the middle of the patch and spreads outwards.

A few years ago we planted a blight resistant strain in the middle rows ( usually plant about 20 rows) and the middle bit was fine, but it started in patches throughout the rest of the area!

It's certainly a matter of keeping one step ahead isn't it?

[womble]

Yes obviously my way is useful only if you have a crop in the ground worth keeping.
I guess I've always been lucky, only grew earlies and always had blight late enough to get a crop.
Never sprayed. I might try diluted milk this year on the tomatoes if they get blight. (they will, they always do, I blame GYOing for becoming too popular and not enough people knowing what they're doing, so you get blight plants being left)

[RobintheBobin]

You can either:
- send them to a Flickr account (or similar)
- connect your phone to your PC with a little cable

I now can't do either as have no phone...transfer over to another provider is going, well lets say it is going a little sloooooooooooooooooooooow

I'm going to have to dig out a camera at work and nip down at lunchtime...

[stupot]

Bad luck Robin! I'm in Shinfield, outside Reading. My potatoes are fine at the moment but we had lots of blight last year on our allotment. In future I'm going to stick first earlies as I've usually dug them up before blights a problem.

[RobintheBobin]

At last I have photos; perhaps a final decision will be made on whether or not I have blight. Although to be honest given that these are all earlies and none have flowered and they have almost all given or are about to give up the will to live I'm not holding out much hope and my leek plants are already eyeing up that bed

When I dug up the first row which was really badly hit the original tuber (?) was mushy and shrivelled; the base of the stem was also a bit gooey

[womble]

I don't think number one's blight, 2 possibly, but only if it's spread rapidly. Does look a bit too brown and not gray to be blight, the others....well maybe, very difficult to tell. Alot of wilting from lack of water going on as well.