Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi

Just had a wander down the garden and noticed a few of my potato plants have dark spots on the lower leaves. I've had a search on the net and am fairly certain that it's early blight .

Any suggestions as to how to control it? I try to be as organic as possible so don't like the idea of using chemicals.

Thanks

Dear 456cat, i think i would just pick the effected leaves off for now and see what happens.
Either burn them or tie them in a plastic bag and put them in the bin.

Thanks for the advice OH. I will try and get out there today if it stops raining!

hi 456cat i have seen a few dark leaves here but am 99.9% sure its frost,however i would still follow OH's advice.good luck with the rain

A couple of stems and leaves on my first earlies were drooping, not from lack of water, so I cut them off and disposed of them pronto.

I had some spuds in a tub and moved them out of the greenhouse about 3 weeks ago, this week spotted the tell tale black spots, anyway tipped them out and they were delicious, not as big a crop as would have been if left a bit longer, but my first ones, so a nice treat. Do you think i can put the spent compost on my raised beds? i dont grow potatoes in them.

I too have soom droopy leaves on my first earlies thought it might be lack of water they are just coming up to flowering stage. Is it a problem? what should I do? Dont want to lose anything.

I actually think we could be in major difficulties this year regarding potatoes. 7 of the last 8 days in this area have had all the minimum requirements for blight to start up. This is unheard of for this time of year; these conditions don't manifest themselves until late July. It will be a miracle if my entire crop of potatoes and tomatoes aren't killed. I sprayed the latter after two consecutive days of blight conditions occurred and also half my spuds with Bordeaux Mixture, but the weather in NW Kent has been unrelenting: temperatures above 10 degrees C and high humidity levels throughout the day and night. I just hope local farmers have undertaken preventative spraying, which they might not have done given the early stage we are at in the season and the rising cost of fuel. I don't know about a rice shortage, but hang on onto your spuds!

BlightWatch Alerts:
for more detail please visit www.blightwatch.co.uk

Area: CM23
Warning: Full Smith Period

GRRRRRRRR!