Forum home Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

potato blight - please help!

I know it's early but I think I may have blight on my spuds. I live in Cornwall and the weather has been warm and wet up until a few days ago and now it is glorious. There are some brown spots on some leaves and stems and some top leaves are brown and crinkly. I have read up on it and it looks like blight and I have also read up on the outlook which is grim. It is showing on my mains, earlies and second earlies. It is only on a few plants at the moment so I have cut off all affected leaves. Does anyone have any experience or advice on what to do or if it could be anything else? Also, are there any other members in the South with similar symptoms?

Posts

  • bekkie hughesbekkie hughes Posts: 5,294
    Hi, really sorry, not a huge amount that can be done, you can spray with bordoux mixture, but it never stops it, might slow it a bit. The usual treatment is to cut the plants down and use the tubers as quickly as you can as they wont store well. Thompson and morgan sell blight resistant spuds which you could try next year, i grew them years back, they werent bad then and are getting better all the time. Good luck image
  • WinniecatWinniecat Posts: 100
    Thanks Rebecca. I guess we will have alot of spuds to eat quickly then!
  • bekkie hughesbekkie hughes Posts: 5,294
    Not all at once, but they cant be stored - chips for tea? image
  • plotskierplotskier Posts: 65

    Exactly the same up here on the north east coast - just noticed yesterday, the leaves have gone yellow with brown patches and are wilting. I have 8 rows of second earlies and salad potatoes, left overs from last year that I planted again this year.  - guess that's the problem. They were stored over winter in the garden shed. I ate some but decided to same money and plant these. Guess I will have to dig them up pronto.

    My other rows, all main crops, were bought as seed potatoes from a well known merchant . They are all ok apart from King Edwards that got a dark green blotchy virus on some , so I pulled them and threw them out. 

    A lesson learned.

  • WinniecatWinniecat Posts: 100
    Mine haven't turned out to be too bad in the end. The charlottes were pretty much all fine and delicious (all eaten now).

    I cut back the foliage on the mains a few weeks ago and dug some up yesterday - about 10% were damaged but the rest seem fine and a good size considering it is early. I don't expect them to store well but hey ho, could have been worse.

    Also, I have the biggest runner bean crop in the world so that makes up for it!
Sign In or Register to comment.