Potatoes

Harvesting and preserving your fruit & veg

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Catherine
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Joined: Fri Feb 29, 2008 3:46 pm
Location: Pendle Lancashire

I lost all the tops of my potatoes with blight last week, first early, second and main. I have chopped all the tops off the potatoes. Tonight I picked some main crop for our tea and when I peeled and cut them up I found a black beetle in a hole in the potato. Has anyone found this before?
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Geoff
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Welcome back!
The black beetles are friends to be encouraged. They eat slugs. In all probability a slug made the hole then the beetle ate the slug. My Potatoes got blight last week too.
Catherine
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Location: Pendle Lancashire

Thanks Geoff, I now remember that they are ok. We picked some more potatoes today and we had more slug damage. We have had chocolate spot on our broad beans and the sweet peas are dreadful with no flowers. I have tried different courgettes this year and am not happy with two of the plants, can't rememer the name but of the plant but there are very many male flowers and hardly any fruit so I read somewhere that you should cut off the male flower heads so I have been doing that. But I am disappointed.
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Muddyboot68
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Can someone please post a picture of a blight infested plant as I think I may have to chop mine down.
Westi
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I haven't got blight but did panic when the last row of Jazzy had some plants yellowing with some spots as well, but as there were healthy plants nearby I knew it was not blight & humidity was low & watering was time consuming so not too even - read no rain for weeks! Sign up to Blight Watch, they will send you a proper warning for your patch & you can copper spray to get a barrier before the rain comes to deposit the spores. Blight watch is free & I've found pretty accurate! I'm expecting a warning tomorrow as I've had high temps & no rain, but the rain is on it's way on Friday so will try to protect the last few rows with a spray - works but not 100%!
Westi
Stephen
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My early Sagitta have been great.
The Wilja are wilting but I don't think they have blight. I'd like to lift some but am away for a week.
The Charlotte and Pentland Crown are standing well.

Elsewhere, I am a volunteer gardener at the local hostel and charity supporting the homeless and there the Rooster have been excellent.
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
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