Topic: Oh no whats on my potatoes ?!

[dlmartin1972]

Hi,

Just been to the plot and some of my duke of York potato plants have got brown patches on the leaves.  They are sort of dry bits that look like they have been burned, should i worry ???

The red DOY next to them dont seem to have it.  I am in Oxfordshire, and we have had things very dry here, if that makes any difference to your diagnosis...

Please help !

Regards,

Darren.

[Sprout]

Could be frost damage from earlier in the week? Some of mine are looking like how you've described yours whereas other plots are untouched. If it is frost, they should recover ok.

[osprey480]

Yes agree with you sprout. My spuds were the only ones "touched" earlier this week by the late frost. The only spuds it frosted was the red duke of york earlies and all the ones next to the grass. The dew on the grass caused the spuds close to them get very cold. Mine also look like they have been burnt, I can already see new leaves appearing as the main stems are ok. Think you are going to be fine, not long till diggging, to me the best part of all the harvest.

[Black Forest Dan]

Same thing happened to my spuds! We had three 'mild' frosts (+1-4C) this week and I was too slow to cover them - we're only a fortnight from midsummer's day! I covered them in May, after an earlier frost knocked them back, but we had temperatures up to 30C early June!- the top leaves are brown and crispy, 'frost burned'.

Sometimes you have to be quick to see the frost which caused the damage - this morning the lawn was frosty at 7.30 but by the time I went outside at 8.15 the sun had melted all the frost.

The frost also got half of my french beans and knocked back my courgettes, but not all veg seem to have problems with mild frost - my peas, onions, carrots, Kohlrabi, garlic, shallots, parsnips, sweetcorn, artichokes, raspberries and of course every imaginable type of weeds, no frost damage. I'll plant new beans - on the bright side, that means I get a staggered supply. I'll pretend I planned it that way!

Lesson learned - next year I'll make a fleece cover which I can pull over the veg bed on clear nights (but roll back on hot and rainy days) and will keep it there until mid June; I'll put the 'frost sensitive' plants together under the fleece.

[Moggle]

What bit of Oxfordshire are you in dlmartin? I'm fairly sure there was frost around our way (Chipping Norton) although I wasn't early enough to see it. One of the relatives lives in Woodstock and he definitely had frost damage on his spuds earlier in the week. Don't worry too much, they will recover  :)

[dlmartin1972]

Hi,

The plot is in Shippon, near Abingdon.

I think that it must have been frost, as it is the most exposted parts of the plants that seem to have been hit, and the ones nearest the grass have got it worst.....

Thanks everyone for the help.

Darren.