Potato problem....maybe

[lordspudz]

Hi

We turned out one of our 2nd early (Kestrel) bags the other day and after leaving them outside to dry off for a couple of hours, brought them in and put them in a paper bag to start using this week. Some of the compo was left on the pots but no more than you would see if buying them from a greengrocer.

We went to use some today and found that a couple were hard to clean off. (You had to literally scrub the spud to get the dirt off). I scrapped off the dirt from another spud, which left small brown spots behind, and smelled it (as you do) and it smelled of burnt plastic!!

Anyone had this before? Should we ditch the rest of the potatoes?

Any help, greatly appreciated.

Terry

[rustylady]

Hi Terry. From what you said about compost I take it your spuds were grown in bags or pots. Can't understand the smell of burnt plastic, unless you used a plastic scourer and scrubbed very hard. The brown spots could be scab. Do you have any pictures?

[chris]

My rocket spuds last year grown in bags had scab, which holds onto the compost as you describe... so I'd go along with rusty too

[lordspudz]

Here are a couple of photos after the spuds had been cleaned.

Haven't noticed scabbing on the others unless it's a small scab strain.

[Two_Sheds]

no photo yet ... I'm just round the corner, run it round to me and I'll put it on

[lordspudz]

Posted two photos earlier. Are they not visible, what have I done wrong now?? :-)

[rustylady]

Posted two photos earlier. Are they not visible, what have I done wrong now?? :-)

Don't know what went wrong, but no photos.

[lordspudz]

Hopefully the photos have uploaded now :-)

[Florence Fennel]

If you scrape the surface with your nail do the marks come off? They look less marked than the ones I harvested last week from my bags. Himself has them scraped and there was no marking beneath the skin surface. Hope this is the case with yours. As to the smell, well, I really don't know!

[lordspudz]

The pictures show the pots after they have been scrubbed with a scourer! The marks you can see do come off if you rub them with your nail (as well as the skin) and, from what I can see, they do not leave marks on the potato itself.

Just concerned if they are OK to eat or should be discarded.

[Florence Fennel]

Well I'd eat them, if that's any recommendation You could always scrape them before or after you boil/steam them if you don't fancy the skin that colour.

[lordspudz]

Would I be right in assuming that if they had been affected by scab, the potato itself under the skin, would be marked?

If you say it's OK to eat them, that's good enough for me :-)

Thanks for you help.

[Shadylane]

We had something like that on some of ours. Rubbed off and ate em. You often get blemishes on spuds but I don't worry too much. It could be a bit of scab maybe(?) Get em scoffed

ETA

Would I be right in assuming that if they had been affected by scab, the potato itself under the skin, would be marked?

Not on our scabby ones they're not. We just peel off the scab and it's fine underneath.

[Florence Fennel]

Would I be right in assuming that if they had been affected by scab, the potato itself under the skin, would be marked?

If you say it's OK to eat them, that's good enough for me :-)

Thanks for you help.

You're more than welcome and enjoy, I just hope they don't taste of plastic! Do let us know LS

[chris]

Looks like a light case of scab, just cut them out or peel - as above they're fine to eat!