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This morning I was inspecting my potatoes (first early) height about 10cm, when I saw a brown rust colour in sum of the leaves, is its possible for blight to strike in May?

Should I start to spray it with Dithane now or wait to see if its just a lack of nutrients?

It's probably frost damage.  A lot of plants have got scorched this week.  They'll recover.

As Ceres said it's almost certainly frost damage, and they will recover.
I'm just a few miles away from you in Rayners Lane and mine have suffered just the same during the past week.

Being a novice at potato growing, I had exactly the same worry last year.  It was minor frost damage as a result of there being a  frost pocket at one end of the plot.  I had a good crop in the end.

We've had no reports of blight, and no Smith periods have been reported. Don't worry! When you get a string of Smith periods, be afraid.

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on May 02, 2009, 20:33:43
We've had no reports of blight, and no Smith periods have been reported. Don't worry! When you get a string of Smith periods, be afraid.

Um - probably being ignorant ::), but what are Smith periods?

Hild have a look here

http://www.blightwatch.co.uk/content/bw-Smith.asp

Quote from: Flighty on May 02, 2009, 21:55:43
Hild have a look here

http://www.blightwatch.co.uk/content/bw-Smith.asp

Thank you!   :)

Thank you all, I feel much better now. ;D

Can anyone tell me if this is potato blight please?
It is only at present affecting one variety.
Should I spray the other potatoes in my my plot now as it does seem a bit too early for blight although in my locality we have had one Smith complete Smith period on Thursday and Friday it does seem too quick for this to have effected this row of potatoes.

Any ideas will be welcome.

I have a similar problem on my potatoes in buckets, though those in rows are unaffected. (yet!). I wondered if it is a scale insect, capsid bug or similar? Yesterday was the first ceremonial emptying of a bucket, the potatoes were unaffected and quite delicious.
I have just found a similar pattern of damage on some of my courgettes, which I don't think suffer from blight - there's no possibility of its being frost damage either.
There are more questions than answers.......

I think it might be 'Target spot' see here; http://www.potato.org.uk/department/knowledge_transfer/pests_and_diseases/ref.html?item=28

Quote from: Tee Gee on May 17, 2009, 15:59:42
I think it might be 'Target spot' see here; http://www.potato.org.uk/department/knowledge_transfer/pests_and_diseases/ref.html?item=28

I had looked at that page on Target Spot (Early Blight) but could not make up my mind mainly because the image of target spot shows the damage on the tip of the leaf where as all mine seem to start from the base of the leaf.

Whatever it is it doesn't look like blight. It would be incredibly early for that.

I'm a bit late with this but if you log on to Blightwatch.co.uk they will send you a warning by txt or email. You have to join but theres no cost. If you really worry about blight then it really is a must site.

Thank you all

Yes blight watch is very handy I had already signed up there just to get a heads up because after losing the tomatoes last summer to blight it helps to know when we get a Smith period.