Potato Blight

[cockneycorrot]

My allotment nieghbours are already spraying against blight, I thought this was to early as the webb site warning against blight doesn't open untill June 8th and then it normally the Kent coast that gets it first, anyone have any thoughts about it. It does seem to me that the disease gets worse each year.

[Mrs Dobby]

Whats the website CC? Never heard of that before, so a copy of the link would be useful!

[dexterdoglancashire]

Am I being a bit dense here? Should I be spraying my tatties against blight just in case, or (as I did last year) spray IF it appears? Bernie

[sewer rat]

The commercial seed tattie growers up here have already sprayed for blight. My mate sprayed 600 acres last weekend and will be out again this weekend to apply a second coat !!

[jondanie]

Mrs Dobby,
The website that Cockneycorrot was referring to I think is

www.potato.org.uk/blight

It's for commercial growers but should have some useful information for home gardeners.

Growers with first earlies will certainly have sprayed already and due to the continued unsettled weather, they should be spraying again. June is the usual month for the first recorded Blight outbreaks. Coupled with the likely return to warmer weather (over 20 deg C) by the end of next week, unsprayed crops could be at risk.

I would advise spraying in the next few days, some previous threads this week have talked about lush foliage that has fallen over with the battering it took form the rain. These crops are prime candidates for blight, because it's fallen over and the interior canopy will remain wet and damp, thus prviding ideal conditions for blight to thrive and spread.

hope this helps

[Earthbabe]

Sounds like I should be asking Mr EB to do his stuff this weekend if the weather holds.

[SarzWix]

I've grown potatoes in pots/tubs for the last couple of years and I've never encountered blight. Now that I have the lottie, and some maincrops in the ground, I'm wondering if I should be worrying about it? I'm under the (possibly mistaken) impression that blight not much issue on higher ground, and we're quite far above sea-level here. Anybody know?

[jondanie]

Sarah,

In a lottie situation I would take blight seriously. If an outbreak starts there, your crop will get infected if you haven't taken precautions. Old discarded or diseased tubers dumped in compost heaps which sprout and start to grow foliage is often the starting point for a blight outbreak. Some people let them grow to salavage some potatoes from them, This is a mistake,

I'm not aware that altitude would affect potato blight, though sheltered gardens with poor air movement makes the enevironment ideal for blight.
Higher altitudes tend to be good for commercial seed potato growers as there's less aphids, which can cause big problems trying to grow virus free seed.

The recent unsettled weather and likely warmer weather on the way could trigger a blight outbreak in the next couple of weeks.

see what your neighbours on your lottie are doing, consider spraying next week. Watch for the blight warnings that are issued by the Met Service for the commercial growers.

Hope this helps,

[SarzWix]

Higher altitudes tend to be good for commercial seed potato growers as there's less aphids, which can cause big problems trying to grow virus free seed.

Perhaps that's where i got the wrong idea...?!

I will have a chat with my next door plot holder, he has gardened on that site for last 30 years so should know what the general risk is. Haven't spotted him spraying yet.

Thankyou JD