Potato vegetation disappearing alarmingly

[antipodes]

My earlies are starting to lose their vegetation, no surprise there, they have been in since early March. But the seconds (Rattes) are doing it now too  ??? ???  The plant is suddenly just dying off, leaves going yellow and the plant suddenly just shrivelling up.
It does seem early to me, so I am wondering if they are suffering from the great heat here? It has been hot, but we got rain at verious times, we did get rain on the weekend, and I have watered occasionally (but not much) and the spuds have been heavily mulched for some time, so the soil should not have dried out that much.
Any ideas?

[antipodes]

[mark_h]

My mate has a neighbouring plot to mine and his first earlies are doing the same(Pentland Javelin).   I also have Pent Javs in and they're looking much more healthy so can't really explain why they're doing it.     The only thing I can suggest is dig a plant up and see how the spuds are.

Mark

[Digeroo]

I have just dug up a red duke of york which had wilted.  Potatoes small but look fine and there were lots of very small ones looking like they should have got bigger.  It is interesting that it is happening to potatoes that have been rained on, I just thought it was lack of water. 

[kippers garden]

It's also happening to some of my early and maincrop potatos....it has only happened to the odd one though which i put down to lack of water but it is strange that others are ok (so far)

[Allotment-junkie]

I suggest you check for Blackleg or even aminopyralid ??

[shirlton]

Our earlies do that most years and we just put it down to them being ready to eat

[grawrc]

I would still check the soil. It has rained here quite heavily but 24 hours later the soil was bone dry. Some of my potatoes were wilting but now that I've watered are looking fine again.

[sweetsaphie]

i dug a bag of my potates up just then, and some of them have like warts on them are they ok to eat or should i throw them away  , all the leaves on my others are dying also , some of the potatoes are so big

[manicscousers]

sounds like a bit of scab, saphie..they're fine to eat, I know what you mean about the size of your spuds, some of our main crop are nearly jacket size already  ;D

[sweetsaphie]

sounds like a bit of scab, saphie..they're fine to eat, I know what you mean about the size of your spuds, some of our main crop are nearly jacket size already  ;D

thanks manicscousers, just made a lovely potato salad , i ended up digging them all up so i have tons , some of them were wee but mostly big uns

[manicscousers]

enjoy them, we're digging the next lot up on sunday  ;D

[antipodes]

I did dig up the plant on Saturday, there are potatoes underneath, a lot in fact and they are healthy it seems but still quite small ones. If I leave them, will they still swell? Even if there is no greenery?
It looked as if the stem died ??? The base of the stem was wilted up and shrunken.

It's a bad year for spuds as the bloody vole got into the earlies and many of them got eaten!

[lancelotment]

Sounds a bit like blackleg.  I've had the same problems with Pentland Javelin and Anya this year. Never grown PJ before so not sure if the foliage is normally sparse but mine were flowering when there were only four or five leaves up on every plant.  Very poor crop as well.

[antipodes]

I am not sure that it is, as there is no "rot" exactly, the stems are completely dried up. The base of the stem is wilted, rather like you see sometimes in squash plants when the stem starts to die off. However there is no sign of rot in the potatoes underneath. They are "ratte" variety, rather annoying as they were expensive. There are loads of potatoes on each plant too. I will leave them anyway. I guess if they swell, good, if not at least they are cool underground.

[carosanto]

Hi All

I planted Home Guard - a very popular variety down here, and exactly the same thing is happening.  One by one, the plants are just shrivelling up, despite watering (sparsely) and the tubers, such as they are, are like marbles.  My plants don't even have any flowers yet.  I have never grown Home Guard before, so am not sure just how normal all this is.  My Lady Crystls, however, are doing fine, despite the hot weather, and, again, very little watering.

I dunno, potatoes should be the easiest crop but sometimes they just don't 'do', do they?

Regards Caro

[amphibian]

My first and second earlies are poor this year, the plants look rough, wilting and browning but not die back. The tubers are small and the yields are shocking.

I don't water my spuds, but this is the driest season we've had for a while and I should have watered them I suppose. I'm going to start watering my EMC and MC spuds.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Mine are wilting as well. It must be the drought, but they're well mulched, from long before everything dried out.

[artichoke]

My potatoes are looking surprisingly brilliant - I think I put them in early enough to benefit from winter rains without actually getting frosted, by complete chance.

BUT! Something is digging them up, and leaving them lying about going green! Obviously then not a person who is short of potatoes himself.

Is it a desperate badger looking for slugs? My only consolation is that they are really big already, though green, plus I have overdone the potato planting and have more than enough left.

[antipodes]

That could well be a vole. That is what it also did to mine, as well as eating them in situ...

[antipodes]

Ok I finally have some pics. Is this potato blight or  what? Funny thing is that the potatoes seem fine??? (so far)