Topic: Thoughts on these potato plants?

[oelph]

Haven't been able to get to our allotment in 4 weeks and we had a shock tonight to see our lovely green potatos reduced to this:



Is this supposed to happen or is it because of all the rain?

[Kepouros]

Can you take a close-up photo of just one of the more affected plants?

And what variety are they?

We should be able to answer your question then.

[saddad]

Probably the B word...
 :'(

[oelph]

They're Maris Piper. I can't get back up to take another photograph yet, however the leaves look shriveled and blackened - you can pull them off with a light hand motion. I did lightly unearth some and could see a few tubers underneath which looked ok.

Other peoples potatos around our allotment are looking fairly similar too. This is the best I can do (crops of the original image):

[David R]

blight :(

[Kepouros]

From the close-ups I cannot see any of the characteristic blight spotting on foliage or stems.  From the amount of defoliation, if this were blight I would also expect to see dark purple/brown patches on many of the stems, but I can`t.

What I see is lower defoliation and pale green (but apparently clean) tops, rather than the normal deep green colouration.  This is not normally symptomatic of blight, but it does indicate that the plants are dying back, and I suspect wet weather rather than any more sinister cause.

I certainly think that the plants are now too far gone to make any further crop growth, and although I do not think blight is present I would cut them down and remove the haulm as a precauthion.

Don`t lift them for at least 2 - 3 weeks after removing the haulm.

[legendaryone]

I certainly think that the plants are now too far gone to make any further crop growth, and although I do not think blight is present I would cut them down and remove the haulm as a precauthion.

Don`t lift them for at least 2 - 3 weeks after removing the haulm.

Just wondering why shouldn't you lift the spuds for 2 - 3 weeks ?

[Mrs Ava]

I only know this because Kepouros has mentioned it on another thread somewhere else...you leave them for a couple of weeks to allow the skins on the spuds to 'set' and for the living blight spores on the soil surface to die.  Otherwise you lift spuds with no hard skins, they come into contact with the blight spores, which will cause the spuds to rot and not store.  ;D  I learn something new every day.

[oelph]

Thank you all. We'll cut down and lift in a couple weeks and hopefully get something salvageable.