Is It Blight?

[Strawberry patch]

Yes, blight is not dangerous to humans, however the potatoes may not store and could go rotten so best to eat them soon or process in some way such as freezing. if caught early the disease may only be in the foliage. cut it all off immediately and burn / dispose of it.

Thanks for the quick reply Bill HH..much appreciated!

[WPG]

Within the space of a week the blight has completely spread through our allotment site. I've cut all haulms down on my second earlies, and earthed over the exposed stumps. Decided not to cut the sarpo mira yet, but to be honest they're not looking great.

Bit worried about it spreading to the tomatoes, which are in a mini tunnel.

[Bill HH]

Within the space of a week the blight has completely spread through our allotment site. I've cut all haulms down on my second earlies, and earthed over the exposed stumps. Decided not to cut the sarpo mira yet, but to be honest they're not looking great.

Bit worried about it spreading to the tomatoes, which are in a mini tunnel.

The Sarpo Mira should not get blight, mine are starting look a bit spotty but that's normal.

[NatalieCooke]

My Tom's look like they have magnesium deficiency. I've just done a quick search for Epsom Salts and a tub of the stuff can be bought from Boots. Am I OK using this? If I can how much water to salt do I need to use and how often should I use it.

[Bill HH]

Yes any chemist will supply it.

I use a dessert spoonful per gallon and water it on to the containers weekly until the plants improve then maybe just occasionally. You can also spray it on.

[solanaceae]

Just had a bit of a fright

Went to look at some of the tomato plants to admire the big fruits I'll be picking soon and I noticed a big brown patch on one of the stems.

Looks just like it could be 'late blight' to me. Not sure when it developed, but this past week has been exceptionally dry. There's been very little rain and very rarely has the relative humidity passed 90%. Heck even the summer has been great - exceptionally dry and wall to wall sunshine on plenty of days. Also there haven't been any 'Smith periods' in my area so far this summer according to the Blightwatch site.

Not using any dodgy seed to grow my plants either and my plants have good air circulation.

This really has me perplexed. It looks like late blight but how on earth can it be if the conditions haven't been right?

Maybe, just maybe it could be 'early blight'? I know they get that over in USA where their summers can be hot and dry just like it's been in the SE England this year.

Anyone got any ideas? Cheers.


Update: Just had another look at the plant and the brown patch extends to the bit of a leaf stem where I had cut it off (to stop the leaves touching the soil). Perhaps it's just an infection from there then, but not blight? Thank God.

[Bill HH]

Hmmmm I thought it got the leaves first.

[Penellype]

It does not look like blight to me. Its too reddish-brown in colour and it lacks the fuzziness caused by the mould spores. You'll soon know anyway - given a day or 2, if that is blight, it will be everywhere. But I don't think so, from that photo.

[Thelma Sanders]

It looks like it's Botrytis - dab it with lemon juice to stop infection and wrap it round with sellotape to stop the stem collapsing or spreading spores. Often this will last long enough to ripen the fruit.
Good luck!

[halfPlot]

Something on my potatoes

Hi everyone

Something appeared on my potatoes about 4 days ago after the period of heavy rain.

Here is a pick from 4 days ago



And here is how it looks today



I also dug up one plant up and took a pic of the underside of it



And the spuds underneath look not to bad just not very many of them and some wireworm damage by the looks of it.



The variety is Maris Piper and they have only been growing about 3 months. Do you think its blight or something else?

Thanks

[Nicos]

Blight takes 2 weeks to show.

Where are you located halfPlot???...can you please put your rough location into your profile so we can better advise/help you???

If it is blight, it's very early...if you cut into the spuds, do they look bruised? ( any chance of a piccie??)

If your spuds are nearly ready I'd be tempted to chop down all the top growth for now and burn it...it reaches the spuds down the stems.....were the stems of those spuds covered in brown patches??..if so,I think it's blight .

Personally , I have found that once he stems are affected you need to act swiftly with chopping down blight.

Do be aware there are other fungus problems which can affect potatoes which won't affect the spuds in the same way.

[Nicos]

Maris Piper are early maincrop ....

Very early earlies - 75 days (harvest around June)
Earlies (or 1st earlies) - 90 days (harvest around July)
Second Earlies - 110 days (harvest around August)
Early Maincrop - 135 days (harvest around September)

Late Maincrop – 160 days (harvest around October)

ie 135 days from planting to harvesting....so , from what you say at 3 months, they should have another month to be ready.

That is the theory at least!

Have a furtle under the soil and see how big they are....

[Penellype]

It is early for blight but it has been warm and humid, ideal conditions for it to spread. The tomatoes that I am growing at my friend's house (next to open fields) definitely have it today although they looked ok yesterday. The signs are blotches on the leaves (very similar to the photo of the potatoes in halfplot's pictures), but more tellingly, black splodges on the stems and some of the fruit starting to go brown. I've seen enough blight to know that this is definitely it. This is disappointing as there have not been many reports of blight in this area, and we haven't had a full Smith period in the last month or so, although we have had 3 days when the criteria were met or nearly met in the last fortnight.

My home tomatoes have black spots on the leaves, but these are completely different, smaller and not fuzzy around the edges. The stems are fine (so far) and the plants just look healthier.

[Green Gerkin]

Thanks for the planting to harvest days Nicos - very useful, I have made a note of them.


Sent from my iPhone using Grow Your Own Forum

[solanaceae]

Funny old blight eh.

Last year we had a double smith period 3rd week of August, yet most of my plants were unaffected.

This year we haven't had any smith periods all season long, except a 'near' period in early July, which makes the blight my tomatoes have been under attack from, since the start of August, all the more bewildering.

The past week the blight has been spreading gradually through 2 of my potato beds. Was hoping the unaffected plants would be contained with Bordeaux mixture, but no such luck. In the past day it really has started spreading even more quickly that I've had no choice but to cut off all the foliage in order to stop the spread to other plants in the garden.

The other 2 potato beds are in a more shaded and crowded area of the garden, so it only makes sense to think they would get blight first... but there's not a single blotch/patch of it.