Early or Late Blight?

[Michelle]

Hi everyone

I'm new to all this, have had an allotment since October, been busy fighting off the bindweed etc. and finally getting to harvest a few things now. I'm a complete novice, so pleased I've managed to grow anything at all, but disappointed there's not more success.

Anyway, we've started harvesting our potatoes but I've got a nasty feeling we've got blight. The leaves are yellowing and there are brown dry patches. The earlies are worst, but the maincrop have a few spots as well.

I've just done a bit of research online, but I can't work out how I know if it is late or early blight - early doesn't seem so serious?

I'm worried about upsetting my neighbouring plot holders if I don't deal with it right, but don't know what to do! Their potatoes look ok, but some other plots look similar to ours. One is much worse than ours, that's a few plots away.

The varieties are accent and desiree, bought from the allotment shop. The last plot holder grew his potatoes on the opposite side and other end to where we have ours (I know this because I've had to pick out all the old ones coming through over there!).

So far the tubers seem fine and tasty, and are quite large.

Also, my tomatoes are next to the potatoes - not really really close, but close enough that I'm worried about them too...

Sorry to have rambled on so much, but can anyone offer some advice please? I'm so clueless!

Thanks

Michelle

[Lesley Jay]

Michelle welcome to the mad house! Yellowing on the leaves turning brown sounds more like magnesium deficiency. Blight is brown patches and if you look under the leaf there should be blight spots with a white mould fringe around them in damp weather. You will know when you have blight. When we got blight two years ago all the foliage got attacked, the potatoes were rotten and all the tomatoes turned brown.

[Michelle]

Thanks, I'll have to go and have a closer look tonight! I hope you're right. Is magnesium deficiency a big problem?

[Lesley Jay]

You could spray them with a mixture of half an ounze of Epsom Salts to a pint of water. That is the recommendation for magnesium deficiency.

[Peter]

Web resource of great benefit.

Do check out this one http://www.potato.org.uk/toolbox/dec...&article_id=12 then poke around a bit.

It is aimed at the commercial grower, but access to the maps and reports alone is worthwhile, some of the leaflets are useful also,

[SueA]

Hi Michelle, if you're harvesting the earlies & the potatoes look O.K. then you shouldn't have a problem, just don't add the leaves etc. to your compost in case it is any kind of disease. On the others if there are black/brown splodges on the leaves & stems it could be the start of blight but if you cut off & dispose of the affected leaves/stems then the crop should still be O.K. as the blight might not have travelled down to the tubers.

[nick the grief]

Hi Michelle,

I would doubt if it is blight, as it hasn't been a damp summer so far & it thrives in hot damp conditions. It's more likely to be a deficiency possibly casused by the lack of water (from above) making it hard for the plant to take up nutrients.

Don't worry about rambling, we all ramble on her, some thru seniility & some thru the excess of Rhubarb Scnapps .... I assume you've already copied the recipe for this as it is sort of an initiation rite that you have to drink a gallon & then try and type

[Michelle]

Thanks everyone!

Got some epsom salts and a spray bottle so I will give that a go later, as well as pulling up some more spuds for my dinner. Had some storms this morning so hoping everything got a good watering.

I did see the recipe for schnapps, sounds good but just read the post about not using rhubarb this late in the year, so now I'm worried I might poison us, as well as intoxicating us!

[SueA]

Michelle, I just noticed a question in Amateur Gardening magazine about potato leaves being yellow with brown blotches (although they had hardly any yield also) & like Lesley says they suggest magnesium deficiency & spraying with Epsom salt solution & also adding Epsom salts to the soil in the spring to prevent it happening again. Don't worry about the rhubarb it shouldn't do you any harm, it just gets a bit tougher as the summer goes on & you're meant to leave some on for the plant to build it's strength back up through them for next year.The oxalic acid is what acts as a laxative though so if you use late-picked stems you might just spend a lot of time on the loo but be too drunk to care!

[Michelle]

Sounds interesting! I'll have to try and find some jars big enough now... any ideas?!

Haven't braved the allotment today - got a rare day off work but it's threatening to pour again so I'm being a wimp and staying in.