Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: valentinelow on June 29, 2006, 13:38:34
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Some of my potatoes have got brown marks on the leaves, and some of the leaves are beginning to turn yellow. In my paranoid way I worry that they might be infected with blight - the marks look suspiciously like the pictures of blight that I have found on the internet - but it seems to be very early for it. Also, the haulms on my Red Duke of York and Charlottes have already turned yellow and withered. I don't know if this is natural dying back, or something more sinister (it is only my second year of spud growing, so I am still a learner). Should I be worried? Is there anything else it could be?
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They probably are just dying back. Its about the right time for early ones to start dying back, mine are.
Late blight tends to attack quickly, ( mid August here) and in moist weather. Within a few days, you start to see dark brown splodges along stems and on leaves. If you do really think it might be blight, cut off the foliage and burn it or dispose of it elsewhere, and leave the spuds in the ground for 2 or 3 weeks before digging up. If you can post pics, that will help. Afraid (or rather, pleased) that I've not seen early blight, so can't advise, but believe it's not as common.
Modified to add picture of my spuds dying back:
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I thought I had blight as well because of brown marks on the leaves, but showed them to my neighbour who said they had been burnt by the wind - could be an explanation
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Our earlies look just like Jenny's piccy, too dry and very windswept methinks. No harm done though, been eating them for a few weeks now ;D