Whats on my potatoes?

[teakdesk]

It is always hard to be certain about blight because there are many harmless bacteria that attack leaves and look very similar.

Bacteria get into the leaves though damage caused by wind - which we have had a lot of recently so it is no surprise to see leaves affected. I get some leaf damage every year - it it harmless !!!!

I have marked your picture 1 and 2.
From the image 1 looks like constant black over the "stain" which is like a standard bacteria attack.
However, 2 seems to have a white centre to the "stain" which could be blight.






Don't forget that if it is blight it will destroy the plant very quickly - a couple of days - so if you have had the black bits for some time it is unlikely to be blight.

[crazii_c]

they've been like that for over a week now, whith not much change. hopefully the epsom salt will give them a pick up now.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Rocket is an early first early and if planted in mid March should be ready for harvest.

Vivaldi is a second early and won't be far behind maybe another 2/3 weeks.

As someone else suggested time for a furtle.

Colin.

[gojiberry]

Blight affects the whole plant and you would also see brown patches on the stems as well as the leaves. The plant would collapse and be a black mess within a week to ten days. Blight is very fast acting.

Ian

[WendyC]

Am I right in thinking that blight tends to start at the edges of leaves rather than through the centre of the leaf? Missed it last year thankfully!

[Potstubsdustbins]

I (fingers crossed) have never suffered blight but believe that if you look under the affected leaves each spot has a whitish mould around the edges.

As your brown spots are mostly between the veins of the leaves I would go with magnesium deficiency.

Colin

[teakdesk]

Have a read thru' this thread and see if it helps.




.

[pipscariad]

Well, mine haven't got any worse, so it's definately not blight (although I didn't think it was, but you never know...). However, they are still looking very sad despite copious watering (rather a case of too little, too late I think *smacks wrist*) and a seaweed feed. As I'm growing different varieties I think some of them (Rocket, Swift) may just be ready to lift and shall have a furtle tomorrow, weather permitting.

The row of maincrops (Kestrel) look perfectly okay, so not sure what's happening there. Should my earlies flower before harvest? No sign of any flowers, but my sisters spuds (planted a couple of weeks after mine) have flowers now, but get far more cossetted than mine!

[Potstubsdustbins]

I grow Swift and very rarely get flowers, if they are looked after you can usually start to harvest at 8/10 weeks. Rocket won't be far behind.


Colin

[kingkano]

My spots spread alot (the wet weather probably hasnt helped) but its definitely not the devastating late blight as the plants havent been decimated. I also have harvested 2 bags now and the spuds are lovely not damaged at all. Still not sure if its target spot (early blight) or not but not bothered now

[FionaH]

Funnily enough I just found similar spots on my rocket plants, time to eat them I reckon