I just received the first Blight Watch notification. I suppose it isn't a surprise with the weather we are having, but I can't remember getting them this early before. :BangHead:
Just got my first, too, East Midlands. Not much chance for the potatoes this year, then, I don't usually get one till late summer, heigh ho.....
We had our a day or so before, I suppose if it really starts the foliage will have to go. I have not been well so soe of mine are not platd yet. :BangHead:
I put some tomatoes out yesterday. So I guess it's my fault!!
It has been very warm and now wet. At the moment my potatoes are looking very bonny but the blight strikes so fast. They have changed the criteria for notification. The Smith periods did not pick up all the problems.
The question is what can be done to prevent it?
Bordeaux mixture works! You can search for the recipe and make it with readily available chemicals on the internet! It's not very kind to the environment though. Not sure I'd like to eat potatoes from ground with copper sulphate being washed in to it by the rain.
I wondered if you could simply cover the plants with something like enviromesh during the dangerous spells to stop the spores from landing on the plants ... my tomatoes in the greenhouse never seem to succumb to it.