Is It Blight?

[Martin H]

Off topic slightly, did anybody else notice how Monty Don's potato harvest seemed to consist of a lot of worryingly green potatoes? He did mention finding one green potato but then went on putting more green ones into his 'harvest' basket. Inadequately earthed up I guess, and not a good example.

I noticed that too. I assume he's keen to get them all out of the ground and hasn't got a separate receptacle to put the green ones in.

Probably a sous-chef will grade them before cooking them with butter or olive oil and lots of salt and pepper for Monty's birthday supper.

[Nannysally99]

Some of my potato plants in bags look like the picture. I wasn't worried about them at all, thought it was the natural dieing off process with a tad of sunburn to boot. The ones in the earth are a lovely green colour though. I'm gonna be checking mine every five minutes now, the black spots are really small though

[Penellype]

Nannysally, are your bagged ones earlies? I have Pentland Javelin in a bag which is going yellow with some small spots on the leaves, but right next to it is Desiree, which is still green. I'm harvesting the Pentland Javelin now.

[Nannysally99]

Yes, the bagged ones are earlies and 2nd earlies, the Maris Piper are in ground and still flowering

[Penellype]

I think there is probably no need to worry then - the earlies are just ready to harvest

[Nannysally99]

Yes, the bagged ones are earlies and 2nd earlies, the Maris Piper are in ground and still flowering

Scrap the above, the ones in bags that have yellowing and slightly spotty leaves are pentland javelin . International kidney also in bags are fine. In the ground are actually Desiree. Sometimes I think I have two parallel gardens lol

[Penellype]

Scrap the above, the ones in bags that have yellowing and slightly spotty leaves are pentland javelin . International kidney also in bags are fine. In the ground are actually Desiree. Sometimes I think I have two parallel gardens lol

Can I pinch one of them?

[Martin H]

My district is now in a Smith Period. Have to keep a close watch on the potatoes, the blight hit heavy last year.

[BertieFox]

I was tempting fate posting the below! After two days of rain, I went out this afternoon to pick some outside toms... only to find blight all over a whole load of the plants. I can't see them recovering now. At least the polytunnel ones are still ok, but once this disease gets a hold, it seems you can't get of it, unless the weather is hot and sunny for weeks on end!

Next year I will try erecting a poly shelter over all my rows of tomato plants and see if that works.

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I thought I would share relatively good news about our blight! The spuds were affected very early but we got all the plants removed straight away and the harvested potatoes have not been affected and are keeping well in sacks.

The blight spread to the outside tomatoes a little, but I sprayed them all heavily with Bordeaux mixture, the copper sulphate fungicide. That, coupled with a rigorous regime of removing every single affected leaf and fruit, along with whole plants where the stems had gone brown, seems to have done the trick, and the surviving plants are doing ok now.

The worst impact was in the polytunnel where I think overhead watering with an automatic system was the main thing to blame, but I have removed all the really affected plants and done the same clean up as outside. There is the occasional leaf still affected and some of the ripening fruit, but mostly they are looking like they should come through. As they are planted in the soil I have stopped watering the plants and am keeping them very dry, which seems to help.

Perhaps I am being over optimistic too soon, but it does seem to suggest that you can survive blight without a total crop failure.

[Bill HH]

I feel for you, I got wiped out last year. I have gone for early potatoes and Sarpo Mira resistant lates this year, hopefully that will stop it getting my tomatoes which are all inside apart from some hanging baskets of tumblers. Did you spray your indoor toms? I hope your fight is successful.

[Penellype]

Walking round this morning after heavy rain last night I noticed lots of brown blotches on potato foliage. Bizarrely these are all on the sarpo mira, which is in between desiree and the earlies (charlotte and pentland javelin). None of the others have the brown patches, although the pentland javelin foliage is yellow and dying back as normal.

I doubt this is blight, although it is at about the right timescale since the last rain we had here, but surely the others would have got it as well! There isn't any white powdery stuff on the undersides - just brown blotches there too. I think these potatoes are nearly ready and this is just normal discolouration as the foliage starts to die back.

[WPG]

Penellype, my sarpo mira have exactly the same blotches. They were planted fairly late so I wasn't expecting them to be ready until around mid August.

I also noticed a few suspicious leaves on my other potatoes - Blue Kestrel, Bonnie, Sherine and Nicola....will have to keep a close eye on them.

[Nannysally99]

Penny, nearly all of my firsts and second potatoes have leaves like that, I too think it's part of the haulms dying, well I hope so ........

[Strawberry patch]

I went to visit my parents early this morning and noticed my fathers potatoes has got blight..Can anyone tell me if they are still safe to eat?

[Bill HH]

Yes, blight is not dangerous to humans, however the potatoes may not store and could go rotten so best to eat them soon or process in some way such as freezing. if caught early the disease may only be in the foliage. cut it all off immediately and burn / dispose of it.