Allotments 4 All

I have 6 varieties of potato's growing on my plot, five varieties look perfect but the leaves on this one just look strange and marbled. The variety is an unusual old variety called 'champion'. They don't seem to be ill as the flowers are started to come out and they seem strong just weirdly marbled and slightly wrinkly leaves.

All used the same manure.

Could this be normal for a potato?

Sawfish, Looking at the browning between the veins its looks like Magnesium Deficiency

Difficult, isn't it? Each variety has its own pattern of foliage. And flower. That's what makes it such fun.

If it was magnesium wouldn't the other varieties planted beside them have it too? Just in case what would I put in the ground to counteract magnesium deficiency?

Epsom salts ,not suitable for all soils.Have a look on the RHS website,lots of information there.

could it be mosaic virus?

Quote from: sawfish on July 05, 2008, 19:35:26
could it be mosaic virus?

I don,t think so potato mosiac virus looks like this
[attachment=1]

I don't want to be alarmist but they look a bit like the leaves of some peoples spuds who have been suffering from secondary poisoning from hormonal herbicide in their manure.

I've heard about this problem on a few forums and it seems to be a widespread problem for folk who have been unlucky enough to get contaminated muck from some farmers.

I hope I'm wrong however, and it's not that sinister.

Just found this link.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/29/food.agriculture

The wrinkling could be herbicide, some of my less badly affected maincrops look a bit like that, but I've not seen or heard of it causing that kind of discolouration.

Well looking at the photo browning between the veins indicates Mag deficiency to me.
Photos of the affects of this hormone infection would be great.

Davy, here's a couple of pics.  The first is one of the worst affected plants, the second is less badly affected - you can see the wrinkly leaves a bit like Sawfish's but no yellowing.

[attachment=1]

[attachment=2]

Surely it would happen to all my 6 varieties if it was infected dung.

I'm just hoping its a strange looking variety.

Sawfish i dont think there is any comparison.
Did you put manure in with your potatoes and if you did, was the same manure put in with your Tomatoes.

I didnt put manure in the tomato's but its in with all the other 5 tattie varieties with no ill effect. Cant be the dodgy chemical in that case.

I agree, like i said it looks like Magnesium Def to me, if you are worried about spray the plant with Epsom salts 2tsp to the gallon, but if the plant is at a good stage is it really worth it.

I'll give the epsoms a go.