Talkback: Potato blight - Talkback

09/07/2009 at 20:17

I've seen blight on most potato crops on my allotment site. As for my own crop of earlies, I've recently sheared them all, dug up half of them, and will shortly dig up and store the remaining crop. What I've harvested so far have been great and delicious. I'm reluctant to grow maincrop spuds, for fear of the dreaded plague. Still, you can't beat a good crop of new potatoes!

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10/07/2009 at 05:46

Our biggest problems were with Colarado Beetle, it meant going out each morning and picking the adult beetle's off and squashing them and also the eggs on underside of leaf. Not a nice job before breakfast. We bought un-chitted potatos on 14/03/08, they chitted and were planted 11/04/08 we are now harvesting, started yesterday. Good crop although on the small side. We also given on 13/04/08 a tray of small chitted potatoes, which have faired a bit better and are cropping well. Watering was a big issue here in Bulgaria. I agree you cant beat a good crop of home grown new potatoes

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10/07/2009 at 08:43

I'm in the NE of Scotland. Should my Charlotte potatoes be ready by now? There is loads of foliage, but no flowers. Am I just impatient, or have they gone wrong?

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11/07/2009 at 08:21

I am new to gardening and I would love to grow potatoes for christmas but when would I do that would I want to start now and where would I get the seed potatoes

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12/07/2009 at 21:34

Live in Mullingar, just outside Dublin. Just spent the last 30 mins cutting down my potato plants....what looked so good only a week ago was quickly going black.....ahhhh all that work gone to waste.....first year giving this a go

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13/07/2009 at 10:00

Can you help, have no blight as yet bur then i have very few leaves. Something has eaten them, caterpillar maybe? Will the spuds be ok to eat and what should i do to stop it happening again, its never happened before. Can i also ask why don't plant labels tell you if a plant is prone to slug/snails etc. it's good to know size & position but not much help when your prize echinacea is nibbled to shreds!!!!!

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13/07/2009 at 10:20

Breda - look up the larger seed merchants online and you will be offered seed potatoes to plant for a Christmas crop. They will advise when to plant.

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13/07/2009 at 10:48

Thanks Marion that is a great help

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13/07/2009 at 10:53

Please help me If I pick all my potatoes now because of blight will I be able to store any for a few weeks, or Is to early for storing

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13/07/2009 at 21:50

I am starting to harvest my potatoes now, but some of them have a pink ring in the middle. I've been binning these just in case, but does anyone know what this is and if the potatoes are still edible?

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15/07/2009 at 08:50

I always wonder why people bother to buy potato seeds. I just buried my potato peeling into the soil and every year I get lots of potato seedlings sprouting out, which I thin them out and get lots of potato crops from them.

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17/07/2009 at 11:27

I tried the way of growing potatoes in Growing Bags. First year I have tried this and only got about 14 Charlotte potatoes on the earlies.I used compost /soil and mushroom compost but obviously I missed a vital ingredient. What was it apart from sun and water?

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19/07/2009 at 08:16

for the first time in 35 years of allotment gardening i have blight on my potatoes. i have never even sprayed them before. two wet summers have not helped but i also beleive the practice amongst some newcomers of leaving last years missed tubers to grow on is a mistake and my plot is surrounded by them.

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20/07/2009 at 18:49

Colorado beetles? not sure what they are, but I keep potato beetles off my plants by boiling tobacco, pouring off the water into a spray bottle and spraying it, cooled of course, on my potato plants. Do this only early in the day so as to allow drying time. The beetles hate the taste. I never had blight/fungus from using this method

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11/08/2009 at 10:39

I tried a 'three types of potato in bags kit' for the first time on my patio outdoors and they have done well.First harvest at 11 weeks of 'Red Duke of York' yielded 4 lbs of spuds. The other two ('Charlotte' and 'Vivaldi' at 13 weeks were much better at double that amount. Plenty of water and liquid feed did the trick.

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11/08/2009 at 15:45

My potatoes looked great on Saturday but come Sunday every leaf on every plant was covered with brown patches. As this is my first year at planting potatoes can anyone give me advice about next year, Can I grow again or do I have to leave for a year or two? Thanks

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12/08/2009 at 11:43

Hi Pippa, I appear to have got potatoe blight on my tomatoes we are going to destroy the plants but can you still eat the fruit?

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17/08/2009 at 16:03

It is the first year that I have grown potatoes. A couple of weeks ago my beautiful green foliage turned yellow (no brown spots or shrivelling). I dug a few spuds up from the end of a row to see if they were ok and they looked fine with no marks or disease. The problem arose when I went to boil them. After about two minutes they exploded as if over boiled with dry outer layer and inside was a 'transparent jelly like goo'. On the bottom of the pan was a layer of sticky jelly. Has anybody any idea what has happened to them? I seem to have two long rows of beautiful but unedible spuds!

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18/08/2009 at 08:10

I have grown potatoes for the first time this year, i have just dug them up and there is not enough to feed 1 person never mind four. Can anybody tell me whats gone wrong. I grew them in buckets.

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25/08/2009 at 20:42

Hi Zahra, The same thing happened to me. When I cooked my Sharpes Express 1st Earlies.I thought exactly like you unedible spuds. I tried again after someone said to cut to the size of a walnut and only boil for approx 5 minutes, this seemed to work. I hope this helps.