Potato woes

[Peteyd]

Evening All,

Would anyone be able to help identify what's been having a feast on my potatoes?

Due to the much reduced size of my growing space since moving, i only have the one raised bed where i try to grow a little of everything so i'd quite like to get as much out of what i grow. This year i have harvested 2.8kg of potatoes only to have 1.3kg nibbled. I'd quite like to find out what's been eating out at my expense and better still, what i can do to stop it next year!

[peanut]

That looks like Scab to me.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=230

[burnie]

Did you dig them up like that or has occurred after storing?

[ameno]

That looks like Scab to me.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=230

Are you sure? I didn't think scab usually caused craters like that.
Looks more like something has been eating them, likely slugs. The cracking and crazing inside the craters is likely scar tissue because the slugs ate them whilst they were still growing, so the wounds healed themselves over afterwards.

[peanut]

Are you sure? I didn't think scab usually caused craters like that.
Looks more like something has been eating them, likely slugs. The cracking and crazing inside the craters is likely scar tissue because the slugs ate them whilst they were still growing, so the wounds healed themselves over afterwards.

I don't think they've been eaten. I think that is a very bad case of Scab. To me it looks like the skin has become cracked and crazed, "Scabbed", as you describe, because they have got too dry in their raised bed.
Be interesting to know when the potatoes are cut open, if their are signs of clean tunnelling into the flesh, by a slug, or if the deformities are mainly surface based, Scab.

[ameno]

I don't think they've been eaten. I think that is a very bad case of Scab. To me it looks like the skin has become cracked and crazed, "Scabbed", as you describe, because they have got too dry in their raised bed.
Be interesting to know when the potatoes are cut open, if their are signs of clean tunnelling into the flesh, by a slug, or if the deformities are mainly surface based, Scab.

Slugs don't always cause tunneling.
Small soil-dwelling slugs tunnel, but large above-ground slugs will also go after potato tubers if the soil is loose and they are near the surface (they don't need to actually be on the surface; they can dig down a couple inches), and those large slugs cause large-ish craters without tunnels, much like this.

The reason I don't think it's scab is because all cases of scab I have ever seen, both in person and in pictures, cause raised patches (they are "scabs", after all), not these hollows. In bad cases you might get a small fissure in the centre of the scab, but never an outright hollow like this. The individual scabs are almost never this large, either.
Although I admit they may have scab as well, and that has confused matters (for instance in the first picture above the top-most crater, that looks distinctly like a scab).

[peanut]

I'm sticking with Scab.

[Snadger]

Could I ask what cultivar of potatoes they were and whether they were bought seed potatoes? If they were bought seed potatoes they should be virus free stock so that should rule out viral problems. Is soil acid or alkaline? and whether the rot is just on the surface are other questions?

[Peteyd]

Ok, a lot of great responses there. That's what i love about this forum, people are really quite helpful rather that dismissive.

I do admit that watering the potato patch hasn't reigned top of my list of jobs for the garden.

The variety is Maris Piper and they were bought from Thompson and Morgan. They were chitted on the windowsill and planted in the ground on Good Friday. They were freshly dug yesterday. They don't smell bad and the plant themselves looked healthy and produced flowers and seed pods etc.


The craters are mushy but once you cut into the potato, it seems ok. i have attached a picture.