I heard 10 days ago that Potato blight was in the allotments 1/4 mile away, so I was expecting it - and found it this morning. Very sneakily it hasn`t touched the top growth (which looks luxuriantly healthy) and was only visible on the hidden lower leaves. It also leapfrogged, and completely ignored, the Nadine (which are now mature) and attacked the Maxine which are in the same bed. The Desiree separated from the Maxine by a 1ft path have only been affected where the two lots of foliage have crossed the path and intermingled.
I dug one Maxine to test and got 7 spuds weighing 4 1/2 lbs in total, so they`ve been cut down along with 4 Desiree which were affected. The rest of the Desiree still look clean, so I`m keeping fingers crossed that they can keep going for another week to put on some weight.
The flame gun will be busy on the Maxine bed tomorrow.
I was told that if your pots got blight, then you just had to remove the foliage. This would stop the fungus being washed down to the spuds in the ground. I did this last year, and they were fine. Was I just lucky? Lottie ;D
Kep - lucky old you - we got it in the first week of June last year!!
Lottie, you were lucky in that you managed to prevent it reaching the tubers, I believe that once its in the soil, then that is the crop lost. Yes, removing and burning the affected foliage may contain the virus, but cant be considered a guarantee.
Kepouros - whereabouts in the UK are you located?
I get some blight most Augusts (usually later in the month), and I`m convinced it always comes over from the allotments, but due to my practice of using the flame gun as soon as the tops are cut down I`ve never yet had a blight rotted potato.
tim, surely that was early blight you got in June - I`ve never been troubled with it.
Yes - certainly earlier than yours!!
Early - late? It's all as unwelcome to me.
They're different diseases, but early blight is devastating, as I know from experience.