Allotments 4 All

I have a good crop of Charlotte potatoes.  Tremendous crop from three haulms so far.

My question is based around the fact that the potential for blight seems to have increased, not affected yet (I think!!).  However, our site had it last year.

As my crop is good i am willing to sacrifice the haulms to protect the tubers.  Has anyone had any experience of cutting off the haulms early and what did they do next?  I was thinking of cutting them off and then re-banking the rows so that the remaining stems are buried under the soil.  Will this protect the crop from blight? or is it just a story?

many thanks for any experience in this area.

Bill

ive heard that as well plus cover the halums with straw etc never did anything  my self never had it on this plot on the other we went away for a week when we came back it was too late

Over here in France - the locals make a brew using nettle leaves and stalks. You fill a bin with them and fill up with water and weigh down the nettles with a brick or something similar. Leave for a fortnight and you'll have a brew which smells like a midden, but is a very good fertiliser and blight preventer - and it's organic, unlike Bordeaux Mixture. You need to let down the brew with water about 10:1 dilution and ideally spray on the leaves of your toms or tatties. I works for me, when the local farmers are spraying the vines with BM regularly.

I tried nettle tea on tomatoes a few years ago and I thought that damping the leaves and stems just make them go even faster.

Hi there, sorry to thread butt....how do I find out if blight is in my area? Ive tried google but just get stuff for years ago, Ive tried blight watch but dont seem to be able to join anywhere on the home page ::)
Thanks

i got some nettle brew (phew) on the go  :-[  my lotty neighbours throught the farmer was spraying his fields ;D

Quote from: royforster on July 03, 2011, 17:55:33
and it's organic, unlike Bordeaux Mixture.

I thought it was still "Organic", although as has been discussed at length here, "organic" is just a name for what some people think is okay...