potato advice

[adamhartree]

hi, i have just been down the allotment only to find that i have left a small row of my christmas potatos in the ground. i went to dig them up but all the potatos are rotten and full of water. just wondering if anyone knows weather i will have to dig them all out or can they be left in the ground to rot, im not sure if leaving them in the ground will halm this years crops or not. any advice welcome.
thanks

[Capsid]

I'd dig them up as the rotting process may introduce other fungi/bacteria which could infect the plants/seeds you put there..

[scarletrunner]

Agree with Capsid.

[Aberdeenplotter]

I'd dig them up as the rotting process may introduce other fungi/bacteria which could infect the plants/seeds you put there..

I partly agree with Capsid but only because of the risk of leaving material in the ground which is perhaps already infected with blight spores. Nothing to fear in general from plant material rotting down in the ground.

[Kristen]

because of the risk of leaving material in the ground which is perhaps already infected with blight spores.

Don't think there is any risk of Blight if they don't / can't grow, is there?

[Two_Sheds]

i have left a small row of my christmas potatos in the ground.

So did you get some for Xmas? I inferred from your sentence above that you'd had some, and left some in the ground

[Aberdeenplotter]

Don't think there is any risk of Blight if they don't / can't grow, is there?

A subsequent crop of potatoes could well develop blight

[adamhartree]

thanks all for the advice, i think i may just dig them out just to be on the safe side and yes two sheds i did have some for christmas, they were maris peers that i planted in early september, it was the first time i have tried them as a christmas crop but they seemed to do just as good as any other crop i had.

[sharon 1]

I would dig them out but I wouldnt grow potatoes on the same spot for at least a couple of years incase of diseases.

[Kristen]

Don't think there is any risk of Blight if they don't / can't grow, is there?

A subsequent crop of potatoes could well develop blight

Not something I know a great deal about, but I thought Blight could only survive in living plant material and not survive in the soil?, and thus the blight has to overwinter in an infected tuber which had to grow to then pass on to other plants as spores?

[Two_Sheds]

Blight could only survive in living plant material and not survive in the soil?

That's my understanding of it too. I'm a bit lax, I always leave some spuds in the ground and I also compost all my peelings and haulms too. I've never had potato blight although my outdoor tomatoes always got it (I don't grow them anymore)

the great majority of infections in gardens arise from wind-blown sporangia originating in other gardens, allotments and commercial crops, which can originate from miles away

http://www.potato.org.uk/media_files..._blight_v5.pdf

[Kristen]

"I always leave some spuds in the ground"

I never manage to get them all out either, but I am good about removing any that come up the following year - "A weed is a plant in the wrong place" and all that ... but also reduces the risk if any of them had blight.

If I actually got infected with Blight I guess I would take much more drastic action - e.g. not grow any spuds the following year.