Blight

[SimonCole]

Never thought that I'd loose my entire potato and tomato crop this early... but I have. Everything is dead! I had a few fruit bushes and cape goosegogs on the plot but the rest was potato-related and I'm left with 75% bare soil.

...Oh well, these things happen

How is everyone coping?

[Nicos]

Bad news Simon.
All my potato crop haulms had blight and I've cut them off, leaving the spuds under the soil as it seems to be drying out quite a bit noww.
I know the spuds won't store so we are eating spuds with everything before they go off , so there'll be none left for the Autumn for sure.
We did plant out about 130 seed potatoes too

Only toms left are cherry toms in greenhouse ( still green) and outdoor heritage currant toms ( which have yet to set fruit!)
From all accounts I seem to have got off fairly lightly so far.....

[cottage garden]

Its gutting isn't it...

Still time to sow a few things in the bare soil from the potatoes though. A few rows of carrots and beetroot?

[heebiejeebie]

The haulms of my maincrop spuds just had a few patches of blight on the leaves so I'm hoping that I dealt with it before the tubers got infected. Time will tell! I may open my tattie bag next month and find a smelly rotting mess.

[Two_Sheds]

The moral of the story is ... diversify. Don't grow a field of taters and nowt else.
Incidentally, I under-sowed pototoes this year, and haven't had enough... they're all gone now and I want some more! Living on french beans, lettuce and chard now.

[multiveg]

The sarpo potatoes look untouched by blight, but other varieties left in the plot have had it in varying degrees.
I've heard ferline tomatoes succumbing to blight this year.
They (who are they?) say variety is the spice of life...

[poozie]

We lost our spuds to blight about 6 weeks ago. It caught everyone out on our site because it was so early. Our earlies were ok, although we have just dug them out and they are no longer 'new' but make nice mash. Maincrop were obliterated, will never get to eat my Pink Fir Apple :-(. On otherhand my runners are a bit sparse but fruiting (or beaning well) and my pumpkins, sweetcorn and courgettes look ok. Just a bad year i guess, but last year we were struggling with drought so..........

[SarzWix]

I hope I've saved my maincrop Desiree by cutting the tops off as soon as I got suspicious, (will find out next week when we dig them up) although all around me I was being told "We haven't had blight on these plots for 30 years"... Quite a lot of other plot holders have now lost their crops totally. Our salad potatoes were all eaten before they had a chance to get anything. Must definately grow more of them next year. My 'second-cropping' potatoes got caught though; they were in the greenhouse, but when it got really hot I foolishly brought them out, next day rain, day after brown blobs - cut it off but too late, slimy stems the day after that... D'oh! Can't believe how quickly it takes hold...?! It's everything else which is proving either rubbish, or disastrous this year - tomatoes, not had one yet and the plants have looked sickly since May - sweetcorn, stopped growing for ages and still hasn't got male flowers fully out or cobs formed - squashes, stopped dead, just started growing again, no female flowers open yet - french beans, had 6 beans from 25 plants and slugs have had a ball with them - lettuces, savaged by slugs and snails...
Done well - salad potatoes, onions & garlic (over-wintered & spring), shallots, cucumbers.
Have high hopes for winter brassicas, got enviro-mesh over 'em to keep the cabbage whites out and slug pellets (shouldn't harm the wildlife coz the mesh keeps them out), so fingers crossed!!
You just gotta learn from experience, and try again next year

[srodders]

Even Guernsey has been hit - I lost all my outdoor tomatos to blight a few weeks ago - indoor ones are still OK.

Let's blame global warming!!

[SimonCole]

Let's blame global warming!!

But we knew it would be 1/2 a degree hotter this year... but who predicted the rain?

I think you're right about diversification Two Sheds... Now I know better!

How will the hotter temperatures effect the brassicas this winter?

[sewer rat]

I think the Big Man upstairs is watching over me as far as being blight free is concerned. I have sprayed three times and haven't succumbed yet, though the blight is all over the area at the mo.
My toms are blight free too.
Sympathies to those of you who have lost crops.

[Nicos]

Tic..Tic..Tic.....

[Nicos]

Sorry Rat....just dug up 13 plants and only gained 10lbs of spuds blight free (Rocket) ...charlotte seem to be doing better

[zebedee]

Yep. Lost all my toms this year! Dug em up Saturday. The guy on the next plot to ours lost toms and 'tatties too.

[Headfry]

What a the first signs of blight on tomatoes and potatoes?
will we get it next year if we had it this year?
how do we get it in the first place....
sorry for all the questions
thanks HF