Topic: Well, that's it then!

[tonybloke]

BLIGHT CANNOT SURVIVE in SOIL ALONE !! it NEEDS TO HAVE A POTATO FOR IT TO OVERWINTER IN !!
if everybody eradicated their volunteers, and farmers covered their outgrade heaps, the bl**dy stuff would soon die out in the uk. ;)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Precisely. The farmers only need to put black plastic over the heaps (what would that save them?), and gardeners just need to be more careful.

[GRACELAND]

Sorry to hear you have lost tubers as well Tim

Touch wood free here at the moment

But this wet weather won't help  :(

[tim]

I'm not crying - yet!
It's only the end of the Earlies that has been hit. Can only assume that it's Blight.

Mains seem OK - at present!

[Digeroo]

Could you explain what are

grade heaps

. 

Done a quick google and plenty of references to them but nothing in the line of a description of what they are.  I am assuming they are desielected/damaged potatoes.  What is the normal method of disposing of these? 

Very difficult removing every last little potato from the soil, even more difficult removing every piece if one goes rotten. 

How should one deal with the finished leaf matter, if put into compost presume the unripe potatoes can carry the blight. 

Our new allotments are on a new site, which has not previously been used for potatoes, so it will be interesting to see how quickly the wind brings in any problems.

[Robert_Brenchley]

If it's just your earlies, are you sure they're not just dying back? My Duke of Yorks have looked like that for a while.

[Suzanne]

I think we have been hit with blight at our lottie. The plot next to me seems to have had dieback of all their potatoes - large brown patches, plant going yellow then completely keeling over and collapsing. this has happened over a period of about 2 weeks. They don't seem to have done anything about it, and I now note that it is spreading over plots with those nearest getting it first.

My International kidney and moulin rouge which I have been steadily digging up as needed seem to be unaffected at the moment as a bit away from the affected plot. But my early main crop Picasso, which I should really be harvesting in August do seem to be getting the brown patches and then leaves going yellow, I don't think its dieback as they haven't done this at this time in the year previously. I dug a few up and the tubers were unaffected and of a reasonable size - so cut the haulms back on affected plants and will harvest when the soil dries up a bit and i can get the tubers to dry before bagging.

I agree with what everyone says - I think we all need to take a bit of care, and perhaps if the other plot holder had cut back and destroyed haulms at first sign it wouldn't be spreading so much now.

[tim]

Wish one knew, Robert!

The nearest reported Full Smith Period was 8 miles away. Two closer "near misses".

[saddad]

Grade heaps are heaps of tubers that are outside the "size" range for the grower/buyer... they are basically just left in a heap...  :-X

[shirlton]

Our earlies have mostly died back but the spuds are ok.

[Digeroo]

Do you have tomatoes outside Tim?  Are they still ok?

There are a lot of sad looking earlies round here but don't think that it is blight though the tubers are still ok but all the main crops are fine.    There is a little black mark on the stem of one of my tomatoes which I am keeping a close check on, and someone two allotments over has some brown spots on some tomatoes leaves that I am watching,

Just had a bag of potatoes from tesco with blighted potatoes.  Got that tell tale smell.  Unfortunately it will be a few days before they are taken away with the rubbish.

On the Smith front We have had two near miss days and one full day.  Got a text message, very promptly,  it has not stopped raining on Tuesday and I had already had a message about a near miss.

[daileg]

we have had 2 full smith reports in the last couple of weeks my first earlies have all been eaten the seconds Anya have only pulled 2 plants good crop now problems found but gettind die back on these have been in the ground since April 13 only little die back didnt flower at all this year grew well though thick plenty full foilage . on My Cara have been in the ground since same date three plants got die back have no blight as yet   

[tim]

Toms outside? Some, but at an early stage. No evident problem.

Keeps one on ones toes?

[THE MASTER]

The first ones reported were on outgrade piles, but I wonder how many gardeners report their outbreaks? We may be dealing with information bias.

Blightwatch is a service primarily for commercial growers, not gardeners.  It's a useful  indicator of when blight starts to appear on a large scale and of how it's moving.

As has been talked about on here multiple times recently, many gardeners can't reliably identify blight so their input would not be useful.

blight looks like frost damage when it first starts the leaves turn and dye then in less than a week all the plants just wilt and die
an unstable temp between night and day can look like blight  as the unsable temp will weeken the plant above ground

[Robert_Brenchley]

My spuds have classic blight symptoms, and they don't look much like yours, Tim. With the wet weather, they should have rotted by now if it's blight.

[tim]

Sorry about yours, Robert - but thanks!

'Twas the mushy tubers that worried me. Clean mush - not the seed tuber.
This was helpful - posted earlier - http://www.potato.org.uk/department/knowledge_transfer/pests_and_diseases/ref.html?item=12

[Robert_Brenchley]

I see from that page that Cara is pretty resistant. Mine aren't affected yet so I'll probably leave them and cut down the rest.

[Suzanne]

I spoke with the other plot holder at our site. He had the problems with his potato diagnosed by GardenOrganic at Ryton as potassium deficiency. So although everything looks miserable on the surface the tubers okay. As a few of us are seeing it as well it looks as though the light sandy soils are probably mineral deficient.

I'll invest in rock dust this autumn - I think.

But came across this site and wondered whether this would help anyone diagnose problems with their plants - if not due to blight. It has a special scetion on potatoes as well as other plants

http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/min-def/list.htm

 :)