Topic: potatoes

[little pud]

Hi, anyone know anything about potatoes, mine are all main crop but they seem to be dying off allready...the leaves are going yellow and the stems are rotting, I have dug a few up to see and the spuds are ok but not many of them as they are not ready yet!! any ideas welcome.
thanks
kev.

[Barnowl]

The obvious suggestion is blight.  I've had similar in bags (not beds) as the result of  lack of water but this is only likely with very light soil. (Another symptom of lack of water is superficial scabbing on the skin of the tubers). 

If it is full blight (as opposed to early blight) the affected stems will have a particularly unpleasant rotten smell.

Any chance of a pic, or perhaps one of these pics might be familiar?

http://www.blackthornarable.co.uk/photography/potdis.htm


Whatever the cause it is usually best to remove any affected leaves and stems as soon as you can and burn them - unless your compost heap gets good and hot.

[redimp]

Probably [urlhttp://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0902/potato_rot.asp]black leg[/url]