BLIGHT FREE POTATOES

General tips / questions on seeding & planting

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Compo
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Like a lot of others my spuds suffered seriously with the dreaded blight last year. These ere Sarpo taters are said to be blight resistant, does this mean that the plant may get the blight but the tuber won't or does it mean that the plant has properties that resist the blight. I look forward to your answers.....

Compo
Last edited by Compo on Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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oldherbaceous
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Evening Compo, i think the blight can attack either the foliage or the tuber. So some varieties have a good foliage resistance and not a good tuber resistance, while others are the other way round.

But Sarpo have a good resistance to both.

I think i've got it about right. :)
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John
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Interesting point, OH.
I've never been sure about the nature of potato blight.
Are p. leaf blight and p. tuber blight two quite separate races of blight or are they one and the same. Is it just that p. blight enters the foliage first then may (or may not) progress down to the tubers.
I grew Rosabelle, Charlotte, Nicola and Stemster this year and though all of them were devasted by blight on their foliage only the Charlotte tubers have also got it.

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oldherbaceous
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I found this site rather interesting, regarding potato blight.

www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/potato.htm

It answered a few things i've never been sure about.
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Cider Boys
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Potato blight is a constantly evolving disease. Therefore a resistant potato variety today does not guarantee future resistance.

We always get some blight despite regular spraying, but as long as the spores have not come in contact with the tubers when lifting or by rain wash, the tubers will not be affected.
Yes John's second explanation is correct it is all the same potato blight.

When any of our potatoes get significant blight such as in this year, we burn off the haulm with sulphuric acid and leave the potatoes for a couple of weeks for their skins to harden before lifting.

When in storage the blight spores should not spread but a rotting tuber due to blight will cause any tubers in contact to also rot.

Most of our damage this year was in fact due to slugs.

Barney
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Johnboy
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Hi Barney and OH,
I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Both Sulphuric Acid and Paraquat are now banned in the UK.
I don't know what was used this year but it was expensive so I was informed.
Paraquat is now only banned because the licence expired and the manufacturers didn't renew it as sales were not sufficient in UK.
Sulphuric Acid was banned after a lobby from the Organic brigade.
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Allan
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The new "weedol 2" is diquat only, surely this would do the same job. Or how\about a flame gun?
I have not grown potatoes for a number of years, they don't pay their keep, you can get acceptable potatoes from many outlets these days.
Allan
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Compo
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I'm not growing for commercial reasons, just pure pleasure, a home grown spud of the variety of your choice is just the ticket with some salad leaves and butter on a summers eve, so will give the Sarpo a go this year and risk my luck, but those that know me will be aware that there will be nothing ending in 'quat' 'ic' or 'acid' on my ground!!

But thanks all for the technical info on the blight itself, it makes sense!

Compo
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Cider Boys
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Hi Johnboy

Yes i'm a little behind the times now and I am told by my son that he uses Diaquat to burn the haulm off.

Long live GM food and the development of a truely blight resistant potato.

Barney
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Johnboy
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Amen to that Barney.
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Compo
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I am not against the idea of GM food, but I would like to know more, I mean plants have been cross pollinating and hybridising since time began, is that not natural GM?

Compo
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Johnboy
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Hi Compo,
You are referring to hybridization not GM.
GM is as it means genetically modified. I do not view it as a bad thing but as usual there are people who, without any knowledge, are vehemently against it. So many lies have been told by those who oppose GM that the general public took against it.
Throughout the world there are now millions of acres down to GM crops and it is being consumed by millions of people worldwide yet according to the anti GM brigade it is unsafe for consumption.
To date I have yet to hear of a single case where eating GM has done anybody the slightest harm.
I personally view GM as safer than a great many simple hybrids. With GM you know what is in the plant but with a simple hybrid you haven't got the foggiest idea what the hybridizing has done.
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Compo
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JB you are wrong about my understanding you said 'you are referring to hybridization not GM' I do know the difference despite your intonation that I don't.

When two animals breed they combine Genes and they genetically modify the next generation, sometimes the selfish gene theory is not successful and we get birth defects and the like. I am not against GM but as I said in the last post before this one...I would like to hear more from an expert that is involved in GM.

Season's greetings GM

Compo
Granny
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I thought that with GM, genes were introduced that were of a different species altogether - like cow genes being introduced into a plant. Isn't that what a lot of the controversy is about? Also, that so far we don't know what the long term effects might be (and I stress 'might'). And we might be letting loose something that we won't know about until later. A bit like Nobel. Didn't he invent dynamite for use in the construction industry then found that people were using it to kill each other and was horrified.
Well, I can see the connection!
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richard p
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yes granny but the nice people at monsato et al have assured us that they are extreemly clever and know what they are doing and nothing can possibly go wrong. for example there is no posssibility of their modified crops cross pollinating with weeds to produce herbicied resistant weeds if they have a couple of yard clear buffer zone arround the gm crops.

all this talk of bees and other insects carrying pollen for miles and even the wind blowing it for hundreds of miles is obviously blatent lies and miss information from the luddite anti gm greenies .

whoops just had a near miss from a flying pig :D

bye see you all after xmas :evil:
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