Kitchen Garden Forum

Is this how I should expect my late planted potatoes? They are Charlotte and Nicola (or Nicole?). Planted once we had lifted the main crop.

Looks like they have succumbed to the late blight that is still around, Stephen….it has been a very strong strain of blight this year!

Agree with OH - very, very late blight but makes sense as we still have the warmth & humidity. I got it in the tunnel but luckily I had harvested most of the toms in there but the blight resistant one remains & still producing. It even saw off the self sown cherry ones which stand up to early blight without a blink.

I guess you've got some digging to do Stephen to save what tubers you have.

You both astonish me! I didn't think it had been warm enough or humid enough. We don't spray them but have done a lot of watering elsewhere.
I didn't see this last week.
I'll chop the foliage back and lift a corner to see what we have.

I made a stew yesterday as always I put two cloves of garlic in it after recent discussions the smell of the garlic was strong as I pressed it with the side of the knife

Stephen I think this is a very severe case of blight that might be a new strain or something along those lines. I would never even considered getting blight this late, but then on reflection I wouldn't have toms or spuds in this late in the year as would have cropped earlier, had it been a better spring. (I don't do Xmas spuds as just feeding the slugs generally).

Hi Westi
This was an experiment, the second planting. I had read about the idea too often not to try it for myself!
In the past I have not bothered because winter is a time for roast or mashed potatoes not new, boiled potatoes, in my opinion.

Had this information in my inbox "Winter grown broad beans are the best quality, but you can also sow them again in Spring for the Autumn, as well as Autumn for Spring"

Did not know you could grow them for Autumn as well.

I always squeeze a late sow in when my spring crop is finished & this year I was even bold enough to do a late, late sow. The late sow has been up & I have harvested the crop. The late, late sow is in flower with several small beans. Unfortunately they are not doing well with the wind & incessant rain, but are now covered & more securely staked so fingers crossed, but I'm not overly confident as quite a bit of mildew around on some other crops. My overwintering early spring ones are just popping up in the tunnel & look stocky enough to sit through the winter & give me an early crop. That is mouse dependent though, but to date they are playing fair & just taking the seed & not chewing through the stems which have a bit of root growth & the temperature is dropping enough to discourage any lanky growth. Basically I grow them nearly all year, but might be a bit more of a challenge in other areas.

It was only supposed to be a yellow warning of high winds & rain last night. They lied! The plot had been trashed with stakes & netting all over the place - fortunately the stakes missed the tunnel. The poor turnips & beetroot were nearly blown out of the ground & doubt they will do much now their roots have been disturbed & they had the shelter of the tunnel behind the wind direction. Didn't disturb the surviving cabbage white caterpillars & white fly much though, but easier to sort them out when not impeded by the netting & temp has dropped considerably so that should also see off any caterpillars I missed at least. Too much talk of tornado's on the news for my liking & it wouldn't surprise me if I got a little one as I have had huge wind before without the damage & chaos that met me when I went down today. Even the fruit trees had a lean & they are well established.

All the spuds lifted and they looked great, if small. I forgot to check for how long they had been in the ground. I'll do that on Monday.
To me, the damage to the foliage looked like frost but we haven't had any.

I'm sorry to hear of the devastation Westi. Roots blown out of the ground is remarkable, a combination of rain and wind I assume.
But could you have done anything if the warning had been more alarming? I remember the storm of October 1987 and I think even if Michael Fish had said there was going to be hurricane force winds it would have made much difference.

I was miffed at Michael Fish - moaned for ages until I found my wheelie bin! But the cat enjoyed chasing the tissues that were being sucked out of the box in the bathroom so there was definitely some big pressure difference as just the little window open so I went into Oz cyclone mode & opened windows each side of the house. The good thing was there was no eye going over with that eerie silence & the tormenting wait for it to all continue again.

I think like you say, the damage was the combination of rain & wind & although I could have banged the stakes in a bit more the soggy ground would have still had them on a lean or out completely. I'm glad you got the spuds out undamaged. I do hope Blight Watch is up & working for next year as they continue to send out warnings right through until the end of the year so you would have known a Huntington period was brewing & could have potentially waterproofed them short term & they would have got a bit more growing time.

What crazy weather it is….it’s quite balmy over the allotment today…even made me feel like I should be seed sowing!

Yes, we need to make the most of such days. Mr Primrose, who has been forcibly rocketed into Head Gardener role has dug out next year,s bean and tomato trench and filled it with compost from the oldest compost heap. I take that as a sign thwt he now feels sufficiently competent to tackle a vegetable growing season of sorts for next year. The remainder of the compost has been tipped on the now harvested and bare area of the vegetable patch so Im hopeful of some level of vegetable growing next year.

I always judge thw progression of the season by how many leaves are left on the trees around our village war memorial for the Rwmembrance Sunday ceremony. Round here we haven,t really had any leaves browning or falling yet but we still have three weeks to go!