potatoe blight

[eieen mccarthy]

has anybody got potatoe blight what would be the best thing to do if you got it?

[eieen mccarthy]

[Robert_Brenchley]

Cut the haulms down to ground level and burn them. Wait three weeks, and lift whatever you have. Thank your lucky stars you're not totally reliant on spuds like the 19th Century Irish poor.

[natasha]

My neighbour striped his plants off the leaves and left only stems poking out.

[gwynleg]

Hi, Robert - why wait 3 weeks? I dug one lot up today of my main crop (after taking off all the haums) - just to see if the potatoes themselves were affected. They dont appear to be but will I have transferred the bug (is it fungal?)? Had intended to give my lovely blue potatoes to a friend tomorrow but dont want to if they might be infected now.

[Kepouros]

There are two reasons why you should wait for at least two weeks between cutting the haulm and lifting the potatoes:-

1. To allow the skins of the tubers to `set` or harden.  If this is not allowed to happen there is a far greater possibility of the tubers rotting in storage.

2. To allow any blight spores lying on the surface of the ground, particularly on loose bits of dropped foliage, to die off.  If you lift the tubers while there are still live spores on the surface of the soil there is every probability that at least some of the tubers will collect the spores and themselves become infected.  It only takes one blighted affected potato tuber to rot a whole bagful in storage.

[gwynleg]

Thanks for this information Kepouros, I'll give the potatoes away as planned but tell them to keep them away from any others!