Potato Problem

[darloboy]

Hi

Some of our potatoes are showing some discolouring on their leaves - see photos.

These are first early crops in a raised bed. There are 2 rows, the affected crops are only on 1 row and not every crop on the row.

We had particularly bad rainfall last week - not sure if this is of relevance or not.

If anybody has any ideas as to what has caused this and also what needs to be done to resolve (treat, destroy etc) it would be very much appreciated!!

Thanks
Craig

[Hazel at the Hill]

Where are you in the country, Darloboy? If you can put your approx location in your profile, it'll help us to help you.

You say that you've had a lot of rain in the last week - what have your daytime/nighttime temps been like?

[darloboy]

Hi Hazel

Thanks for the reply, i'm in a small town called Newton Aycliffe which is in County Durham, so the North East of England.

Day time temps have ranged from 8 to 21 over the past 7 days! There has been no frost overnight, a couple of chilly nights but nothing too extreme for this time of year.

Thanks

[veggiechicken]

What variety are they and when did you plant them?

[darloboy]

My wife is probably nmore qualified to answer this but i am fairly sure they are Pentland Javelin, and I would say they were chitting for a good 6 weeks at home then they have been in around 7-8 weeks.

[Potstubsdustbins]

If I just had the photo and no other info I would plump for slight frost damage.

Potty

[alldigging]

Some of mine peeping through are a bit brown scorched - it's only one of the varieties (Could be casablanca, Paro or sarpo but not sure which one as they got mixed up - they were the smallest ones though so suspect casablanca...)

[Mr Bones]

I'd go for cold weather. My Lady Balfours were the same (if not worse) but sunshine and warmth over the weekend has greened them up no end.

[Snadger]

Hi Hazel

Thanks for the reply, i'm in a small town called Newton Aycliffe which is in County Durham, so the North East of England.

Day time temps have ranged from 8 to 21 over the past 7 days! There has been no frost overnight, a couple of chilly nights but nothing too extreme for this time of year.

Thanks

But you originally came from Darlington I presume?

[Paulieb]

Some of our potatoes are showing some discolouring on their leaves - see photos.

Some of my potatoes in tubs showed similar symptoms to a greater extent, which I narrowed down to frost damage.

About 5 tubs out of about 20 that were outside showed this, so variety could make a difference (as I've a few different varieties), but also the way the cold air moves one of the rows may have protected the other row. And another theory may be that as it was only probably a very slight frost this may have just nipped the ends of the really soft new growth, and wasn't cold enough to damage more of the plant.

Also regarding frost damage, if a frosted plant is allowed to thaw really slowly it will suffer less lasting damage compared with if it is in direct sunlight (early in the morning) whilst still frozen. Perhaps this made a difference?