potato blight

[the plumber]

it,s probably an old query. but. if you get blight does it live in the soil for future growing. cheers. plumber.

[Two_Sheds]

No.

It can only survive on living plant tissue, ie leaves, tubers

[the plumber]

thanks. i/m relieved.

[Kristen]

Well "yes and no". "no" as Two-Sheds says, buy you need to make sure you are fastidious about removing any "volunteer" spuds that spring up next year, as they may have over wintered Blight, and they could then spread it to Spuds nearby.

Assuming you use crop rotation, and the spuds will thus be in a different patch next year, it will be easy to see any volunteer spuds from this year's crop. I never let any volunteer spuds that spring up offer me a "free crop" because they will have some tiny offspring that will volunteer the following year ... and then by the time your spuds are back in the original position there will still be some remnants of the previous year's potato plants, and if you had Blight last year there will be no way to tell which are the plants from new ones, and which from Volunteers in the same patch.

Others take a different view to Volunteer spuds though.