Topic: Potato trouble

[Paulgul]

I'm having problems with my Late crop of potatoes (Cara), about 5 plants out of 30 or so are dying off. I've uploaded a picture here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul-g/3641021053/
Looking in one of my books I wondered if it could be blackleg, but the underground stems are brown rather than black so I'm not sure. I've never had this trouble before but I've also never grown Cara before so could it be variety related?

Paul

[davyw1]

It could be stem rot, ( Black leg ) something like that try this link

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=223

[Kepouros]

I`m as sure as one can be from a photo of that size that you`ve got blackleg there.  Dig it out and burn it along with any others similarly affected.

Unless you`ve had blackleg in your patch before, it is almost certainly the result of infected seed.  I lost 20% of my crop to it for several years until I changed my seed supplier, since when I`ve not seen it again.

With normal crop rotation it`s unlikely to cause problems in the future.

[Paulgul]

Ok, thanks for the quick replies. I'll dig out the plants tomorrow and burn them.

Paul