Topic: Potato Clamp.......

[Tee Gee]

Here is something to think about;

Where does the grower who grows seed potatoes get his seed potatoes from ???

[Digeroo]

I think I might give it a go, though we do have rats on site.  Mice cause problems in the garage. 

Tend to be able to get straw free.  Every now and then one of the bales splits and the farmer is quite happy for the allotmenteers to tidy it for him.  They have just been stacking the new stuff so there is straw all over the place.  Perhaps the difference is that there are no longer any stooks it is all done with a combine and a baler.  Haven't seen stooks for years.

Do thatchers use straw harvested by hand?

What kind of straw is best foar clamps?.  Barley is supposed to have anti algae properties.

I am sure that the blight came in with the seed potatoes last year it started in the middle of the field which had never ever grown potatoes in it. Seed potatoes generally came from Scotland i thought that his was perhaps because it is too cold for blight to develop.

[Kepouros]

There are numerous potato diseases that can affect future crops if affected seed are used.  Some of these, as Robert says, are transmissable by aphids, but others can cause a build up of disease in the soil itself - such a one is blackleg which can increase from a few isolated instances in one year to almost a wipe out a few years later.  Many soils contain traces of blackleg without it causing any harm to the crop, but tubers from that crop used as seed can greatly multiply the incidence of the disease.

I wouldn`t normally use my own seed, but having said that I usually allow my `volunteers` to grow on to maturity and I`ve never experienced any problems from them.

Professional Growers of tubers for seed have to be certified, and their soil inspected every year and tested for
various potato pests and diseases, each of which must not exceed a certain percentage.  Whether there are any variations in the permitted levels between English and Scottish seed I cannot say, but I found when I was using potato seed supplied from English sources via a well known mail order firm I regularly lost over 20% of my crop to blackleg, and when I switched to Scottish certified seed from the local garden shop I had no more trouble.