Sickly 'Kestrel'

[Monika]

Our potatoes 'Kestrel' are looking rather sickly, not blight-like, but they are not growing well and the foliage is going yellow. All other potatoes (Cara, Nadine, Rooster, Anya, Sarpo Mira, Blue Danube), growing at the same site, in the same soil and planted roughly the same time, are doing very well.

One of our allotment neighbours reports the same problems with his 'Kestrel' potatoes though he bought them from a completely different supplier.

Has anybody else had problems with 'Kestrel' his year?

[MikA]

Monica,

I've not had any problems as you describe with the potato sack ones but they are looking very poorly since I accidentally sheared off a large proportion of their foliage

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Monika, mine are growing fine!

I wonder if it is something to do with the weather you have had this year.

[Johnboy]

Hi Monika,
We are experiencing difficulty with Kestrel this year with yellowing foliage which gets brown patches on the edges but these seem not to bother the plant and it has not spread to any other varieties..
We had some fairly cold nights about a fortnight ago and we think that we probably dipped down to a slight frost. Certainly not Blight but cannot say really what ails them. It is strange that it is only Kestrel.
These are not my spuds but a friends.
JB.

[Monika]

Hello, all! Many thanks for the replies.
Johnboy, we wondered whether it was the rather cool weather we had at the start of June, almost reaching frost level. Perhaps 'Kestrel' is more sensitive to cooler weather? The proof, of course, will be in the eating, when we start to dig some up! We are now eating 'Nadine' which are very good.

[Johnboy]

Hi Monika,
We have been tickling a few Kestrel to see how they are doing and if there is any damage in the crop and everything seems to be fine.
It is very marked that it is the Kestrel crop only that are affected and all other varieties seem to have weathered the storm whatever it was.
JB.

[Monika]

Johnboy, we have now dug up the first four plants of Kestrel and the yield is very low - the foliage has by now almost disappeared. The four plants produced about as much as one plant should! As the Kestrel we have grown in bags at home (much more sheltered and regularly watered) have growing perfectly ok and are yielding well, it must have been the very cold nights at the start of June from which they never recovered.

[sincerity]

I grew Kestrel in addition to other varieties last year. I was so impressed with the potatoes that I ordered a sack of them this year. Until recently the potatoes were growing well, as expected, but in the past week they have shown signs of 'going over' well before time. The plants themselves have not reached the point of flowering, some foliage is yellowing and the haulm appearing to go over - as if ready. The haulm would normally grow for at least another month before showing such signs. The symptoms fit text book descriptions of potato cyst nematode, but there is no sign of this on the roots. Jim McColl on Beechgrove garden put similar damage on his ( non - Kestrel) potatoes down to blackleg - again no sign of rotting stems/ seed potato in mine. Today, on Farming Today, a 'crisp potato' grower said that plants will show similar signs ( premature die back) when the temperature exceeds 24 degrees. All I know is that the weather pattern this year is the reverse of that last year. Last year I was worried as the weather turned very hot and dry as the haulm was growing. This year the plants have faced rain and wind almost daily over weeks with a hot spell hitting last week. Last year the potatoes were jacket potato size; this year they are 3 - 5 inches. I have left them to see if they do gain more in size, but when the haulm dies back fully, they will certainly cease to grow.