I've got blight...

[RobintheBobin]

...and so have my lottie neighbours

It is on my Pentlin Javelins - as they are behind anyway due to the bad frost earlier in the year should I just pull them up? My neighbour covered them with Bordeaux Mixture but I fear it is too late.

The other plants nearby are doing okay. This is so frustrating as we have hardly had any rain!!

Help!

[shirlthegirl43]

are you certain it is blight?

[rustylady]

Are you absolutely sure it's blight? It's been so dry, and blight is more prevalent in humid conditions.

[RobintheBobin]

Well I thought optimistically they were just burnt or shrivelled but apparently one lottie owner is a horticultural lecturer at the Uni and he has declared my neighbour's potato has having blight.

The leaves are yellow/brown and shrivelled and the plants aren't growing. It is almost as if they are 'over' and dying back.

I'll try and get a photo tonight.

[shirlthegirl43]

Doesn't sound like blight to me to be honest. Blight is 'wet' looking and mouldy and the haulms sort of rot rather than getting yellow and crispy. Photos will be a big help but here's a pic of blight for you to compare... http://www.potatodiseases.org/images...ight-fig-5.jpg

[rustylady]

Yellow/brown and shrivelling sounds like lack of water to me. It certainly doesn't sound like blight, which as Shirl says is dark brown/black and wet looking. Maybe your "expert" needs to stop teaching from books and get into real gardening.

[always digging]

dont think its blight some of the spuds at my allotment and other plots have the same problem its lack of water

[SarzWix]

Order a blight testing kit from JBA Seed Potatoes. As the others have said, it's hugely unlikely to be blight when it's been so dry - blight needs over 90% humidity for a certain length of time to become a problem. If you can take photos and post them on here it might help us to work out what the problem is.

If you look here: http://www.potato.org.uk/department/...ledge_transfer you can see that there's only a couple of officially reported cases in the whole country, and they're nowhere near Reading

[zazen999]

Well I thought optimistically they were just burnt or shrivelled but apparently one lottie owner is a horticultural lecturer at the Uni and he has declared my neighbour's potato has having blight.

The leaves are yellow/brown and shrivelled and the plants aren't growing. It is almost as if they are 'over' and dying back.

I'll try and get a photo tonight.

hmm....I think he might be eating his words; blight isn't yellow or brown...

[RobintheBobin]

So my non-qualified diagnosis of burnt and shrivelled i.e. no water is right. Maybe I should go into lecturing myself

I'll still try and get a piccie (didn't manage it last night) and let you guys see what you think.

It is quite baffling how it possibly could be blight as I can't actually remember when we last had rain

[Flummery]

I know some botany lecturers who can't identify even common plants in the field. Give them a little scrape of pollen though, and they are hot!

[sisyphus]

I'm in Reading too and BlightWatch issued a Full Smith Period warning on 9th of June, so I don't think it's out of the question that it's blight. We last had rain on Monday morning. Not much, just a brief shower.

RobintheBobin, I hope it isn't blight. If you post a picture then maybe the others here can give a second opinion.

Out of curiosity, which allotment are you on?

[Two_Sheds]

So my non-qualified diagnosis of burnt and shrivelled i.e. no water is right.

Yep I have the same disease on my own spuds

I'm in Reading too and BlightWatch issued a Full Smith Period warning on 9th of June

That's what it is: a warning.
We've had them too, but it doesn't mean you have blight: it just means the conditions for it occurring are favourable.

"Smith Period conditions are conducive for sporulation of the potato blight pathogen on lesions - leaf wetness is also necessary for infection to occur" Another reason for watering the roots, not the leaves, of plants

source: http://www.blightwatch.co.uk/content/bw-Smith.asp

[RobintheBobin]

Update on the 'blight'; I dug up the Pentlin Javelin plant which looks the worst and the stem was all gooey and black/brown. There were very few potatoes. My entire crop is starting to get affected as is my neighbours' potatoes and he is a wonder waterer - far more than me!

I can't upload my photos as they are on my phone and the technology eludes me

My other slightly bigger plants are starting to get brown spots and wither so whatever it is they have it to. Oh well, obviously not my year for potatoes.

[Nicos]

Well there ya go...you were right all along!...pity though

You can sometimes save the crop by cutting off all the top growth before it spreads down to the tubors and leave them underground.

They certainly won't store once dug up though.

How many plants do/did you have?