Author Topic: potato blight? panic!!! (Read 3075 times)

campanula · « **on:** June 11, 2004, 18:52:26 »

i think i have blight on my kestrel, second earlies. On just one plant nearest the path. there are many brown patches of similar size all over the leaves which also look very chlorotic. Also, in the middle of the row, altho the foliage looks healthy, the potatoes are collapsing - i thought my collie had been romping across them at first - There is still plenty of moisture in the soil despite the dry weather and i have had a hose on them once or twice so I know they are not suffering any drought. I am keen to cut off the affected growth and I believe that you can treat the rest with bordeaux mixture or summat but as a novice........ ??? I planted them early March and have earthed them up a couple of times so I would have thought harvesting was imminent but I have to confess to digging around my first earlies (Red Duke of York) and being somewhat underwhelmed by the minuscule red marbles despite what looks like glorious rows of lush growth. In fact, am now bewildered, verging on frantic but not yet hysterical - however, am avoiding the plot tonight as i feel my gardening morale is fragile. Any ideas please?
cheers suzy

cleo · « **Reply #1 on:** June 11, 2004, 20:04:17 »

well spraying with Bordeaux mixture will not do any harm,to be honest I am not much cop on blight(touch wood).

Red Duke of York will not be ready yet- give them a while-at least three weeks by the look of mine.

Stephan.

Mrs Ava · « **Reply #2 on:** June 11, 2004, 22:43:03 »

My red duke of yorks are still only small, but then they will have only been in the ground 13 weeks about next weekend. Also figuring a good 3 weeks more before they are ready. As for the blight, ooer. I have 1 plant, mid row, and 2 of the leaves have blotches on, but, I think this is more me damaging them when I was weeding (fingers tightly crossed!) However Campanula, don't panic, Phil mentioned on an earlier blight post about spraying with something to halt the blight, so if you can, treat them, then wait a few more weeks before having another explore. (Fingers and toes tightly crossed for you and me now! :-\)

tim · « **Reply #3 on:** June 12, 2004, 06:58:02 »

Why don't we ever learn??
Spray before the haulms meet over the rows - keep a watchful eye etc.
Everything looked fine & dandy, no rain, no apparent humidity. Was planning on spraying today.
Out at 6am to dig for 7 for lunch and, overnight, all the RDY are collapsing. And the Anya next to them have got it too. But the next 3 rows, as yet, are clear.

So - big clean up & thorough spraying & promise to be better next year. Trouble is, I severely damaged my right hand 2 days ago (note the left-handed typing?) & life's a bit difficult.

btw - the RDY are miserably small this year, but the ground is bone dry & rock hard. = Tim

Just to add insult to injury, the first rain in many weeks comes just in time to wash the spores into the ground & stop me spraying!! There's a word for it?

aquilegia · « **Reply #4 on:** June 14, 2004, 09:49:17 »

I've lost several of my spuds. :'( But I'm convinced it's not blight, but blackleg (from looking at the pics in my veg expert book - eek watch out DC!) There is a small browny yellow patch on one of the plants, which otherwise looks healthy. Two of the others, which had already been nibbled by snails, have shrivelled back to nothingness. I think I must've overwatered them and they are on heavy clay soil, which the book says, means blackleg. The discoloured leaf doesn't have white patches on it.

Or am I just being really naive?

Multiveg · « **Reply #5 on:** June 14, 2004, 10:34:24 »

Aqui - I had blackleg on one of the Accent spuds this year - got a picture on my website somewhere - the plant started to wilt and yellow - and if you stick your hand down the stem to ground level/just below, it would be starting to rot - when I pulled mine up - the stem at ground level/below had gone black (suppose that is why it is called blackleg). A couple of other plants have got brown papery spots (must take a picture for putting up on website) - think Hessayon said it was some sort of insect thing - capsid bug, though nothing really to be concerned about.

kenkew · « **Reply #6 on:** June 14, 2004, 11:55:44 »

I've been looking after plot for a friend who's been away for the last 2 weeks. On his haulms was a bug I've never seen before. At first I thought it was a firebug, when I put my specs on I relized it wasn't, not red enough and not big enough so I popped it into a jar and had a closer look when I got home. (I find bugs interesting.) I had some bad news for him. It was the larva stage of the Colorado beetle, confirmed on Saturday when I spotted the adults there!

tim · « **Reply #7 on:** June 14, 2004, 12:00:29 »

Ken - please sterilise all your mail to us?? = Tim

Ceri · « **Reply #8 on:** June 14, 2004, 14:16:05 »

colorado beetle - are you supposed to inform your defra type body or somebody or is that a bit of a myth?

legless · « **Reply #9 on:** June 14, 2004, 14:19:01 »

oh dear i think that's what's happening to some of my charlottes, best deal with them tonight.

kenkew · « **Reply #10 on:** June 14, 2004, 14:21:20 »

In the UK you're supposed to inform the Ministry of fisheries and food (is that the modern name) or, if you're not sure what the bug is but suspect it's a colorado, you should put it in a sealed box and take it to the police station. Colorado in the UK is treated as a serious problem. Here in Belgium we are advised to spray the affected crop. They don't say with what! (I havn't got it - fingers crossed- and the plot in question is 15 miles away.)

Multiveg · « **Reply #11 on:** June 14, 2004, 16:02:40 »

The Colorado beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) is a notifiable quarantine pest under the Plant Health Order (Northern Ireland) 1993 (as amended). It is also one of the harmful organisms for which the UK has been designated as a protected zone under the EC arrangements for plant health.

* approximately 500 were found in 1 consignment of imported lettuce
** approximately 100 were found in a container from Greece
*** a live female Colorado beetle was found on potato plants in an allotment. Potato crops in the surrounding area were examined during 2000, no Colorado beetles were found.

http://www.dardni.gov.uk/pr2001/pr010252.htm

Ceri · « **Reply #12 on:** June 14, 2004, 16:21:44 »

http://www.defra.gov.uk/planth/pestnote/colorado.htm

above is copy of website address where I found piccies - no pictures of the larvae though

(sorry don't know how to do the blue website address link thingy - I just cut and pasted it!)

Ceri · « **Reply #13 on:** June 14, 2004, 16:22:29 »

ignore last comment - it does it all by itself - hoorah! Yet again, my pc ignorance is unleashed on the world!

kenkew · « **Reply #14 on:** June 14, 2004, 16:33:50 »

You're too clever by half, Ceri (that's my sister's name) you should be voted Techno chief of A4A site.

Ceri · « **Reply #15 on:** June 14, 2004, 16:45:08 »

That would be the equivalent of putting a senior Monsanto executive in charge of the US's environmental policy!!

Errr.... except the head of the US's environmental policy actually is a senior Monsanto executive!

john_miller · « **Reply #16 on:** June 15, 2004, 03:17:08 »

For the larval stage, ken, Bt (Bacillus thuringienesis) is a very effective natural control that is permitted over here at least. I don't know about Europe though.

tim · « **Reply #17 on:** June 15, 2004, 06:52:23 »

We use Bt on brassica when necessary - great stuf! = Tim

kenkew · « **Reply #18 on:** June 15, 2004, 12:06:54 »

It might be worth my while to have some on hand.
(Now, what's the Flemish name of Bacillus thuringienesis.)
???

Multiveg · « **Reply #19 on:** June 15, 2004, 19:31:25 »

My holes - found a greenish twice/thrice bigger aphid like thing - think this is a capsid bug. Didn't have a camera with me though to take piccie of it. (thought for a second before I saw the bug, that it was colorado beetle)

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Author Topic: potato blight? panic!!! (Read 3075 times)