is it or isnt it

[debster]

is it or isnt it blight if so these are my mains and went in in may

[debster]

[debster]

here is another picci

[Fork]

I would say yes

[debster]

what do i do know then?  :(

[Fork]

Get a second opinion first just incase it isnt.

If it is,cut back all the haulms to a couple of inches above soil and then try and earth up some more.then leave them for a couple of more weeks.

You can just cut your losses and dig the whole lot up.That way you will be sure to have some potatoes.They may be small but at least they wont be turning rotten.

Mine are the same and I will be digging a few up over the next day or two to look at them.I will probabaly dig the whole lot up and pass this year off as a bad one.

[Kepouros]

There are one or two spots in both photographs which may be blight, but it is difficult to be precise from the photo`s.  Most of the damage is not blight but is more indicative of extreme wet weather.  There is certainly nothing that suggests desparate measures just yet.

The short answer to your question is remove all the affected foliage, spray with either Bordeaux Mixture or Dithane, then wait and see if any further signs of blight appear on the foliage.  For a model indication of blight see Wilco`s posting on this board under `Blight (again, sorry)`.  For further confirmation look at all the leaves on which a purplish/black spot appears, then look at the underside of the leaf - if you can see the spot with a slightly whiteish/greyish patch around it then that`s blight.  You can then decide whether to cut the lot down, or whether to improve your chances of a crop by controlling the spread with careful removal of affected foliage combined with spraying for a week or two as I do.

In any event, where the haulm has been cut down DO NOT dig up the plants for 2 - 3 weeks to allow the tuber skins to set and the blight spores on the soil to die off.

[allaboutliverpool]

No!  It is the bottom leaves which are dying off. The black spots are common but not blight necessarily.

Most potatoes get those dark spots and often quite early and could be a desease called early blight, not a devastating as late blight. I would just pull them off and spray anyway, it is better to be safe than sorry.

[debster]

i checked the underside of the leaves and there doesnt seem to be any furriness under there it looks exactly the same as the top just goes straight through the leaf

[cambourne7]

on our site we had a lot of the allotment holders think they had blight, but nothing was wet and smelly.

The majority of the men seamed to think that these were potatoes that were behaving a little out of character because of the rain. It turned out that some of these apparant blight hit spuds were 1st earlies and 2nd earlies that they had not harvested yes and they had all got die back!!

I found this link helpful

http://www.ruralni.gov.uk/index/crops/potatoes/blight_net/potato_blight_symptoms.htm

[debster]

mine look more like spots dont look much like those pictures, think i will try to remove the worst affected leaves and spray anyway. it cant do any harm. i assume that so long as i wash the veg before eating it the spray wont kill me?

[Kepouros]

In that case you haven`t got blight, debster. But yes, you should still spray as soon as the leaves dry off again simply as a prophilactic measure.  You only need spray the potato foliage, not your other vegetables.

[debster]

ok thanks off to the garden centre tomorrow to see if theres any stuff left!!