Kitchen Garden Forum

I assume from the regularity with which the subject of blight crops up in forums like this that the problem has got worse over the years. I am well aware of the history of blight in the nineteenth century and the great Irish famine, but know little of its incidence since then - especially over the past few decades.
When I was growing up in Lancashire in the forties and fifties I never heard it mentioned, but then, even though I was a gardening child, I might not have been listening! What I do know is that in my time on allotments in Leeds since the sixties, ending up on a site of 115 plots, I never suffered blight myself on potatoes or tomatoes nor see it affect anyone else's crops. There was a limited amount of spraying with Bordeaux mixture (only on potatoes, never outdoor tomatoes). Potatoes were harvested, blight-free, as late as October, and outdoor tomatoes cropped until affected by cold autumn conditions.
When we moved to NW Wales ten years ago potatoes were affected from mid-July every year and outdoor tomatoes were impossible to grow. I only avoid blight now by growing tomatoes under cover and planting all my potatoes as early as possile, with a view to harvesting in early July at the latest. This was on land which had never grown vegetables before.
What are other people's experiences of differences between places and now compared with, say, ten or twenty years ago?

Morning Alan, i am really hoping that the blight has been worse following mild winters. With this Winter being slightly harder then we have had for quite a few years, i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

It would be interesing to know if the worse recorded blight outbreaks through history, were after mild Winters.

Here's hoping for a good year.

I have in the past done controlled blight field trials. In drought years it was very difficult to encourage the blight to take, in order to deliberately infect varieties to trial them for resistance. In 1995, which was a blistering summer, we could not infect a single plant. Blight likes it wet and warm, and growing up in the north east, blight was certainly not a problem I can only suppose because it was that bit cooler. In most years, infestations blow in from the Continent. Spores can cover distances of many tens of miles, across the Channel and the Irish Sea, usually carried by warm, thundery and humid weather. The spores need a wet leaf surface to germinate.

The advice is frequently given in horticultural literature that infected potato haulms and tomato vines should be destroyed to limit the disease. There is, though, no evidence to support this and considering the disease is wind-blown over distances, it is rather a waste of good organic matter not to compost them.

Keeping the leaves dry is the key to avoiding blight without using chemical controls. Easy if you're growing tomatoes under glass, but not practical for outdoor crops. The potato trials I was involved with did not reveal a truly resistant variety, but more recent breeding attempts have been successful. The resulting varieties, though, do not store well.

We have an allotment here in the West Midlands for the past 25 or more years and the only time we got blight was in 2007 and then it only affected the rattie potato the rest escaped, last year a few of the potato plants got blight but all the outdoor plum tomatoes were affected.
In the 30's and 40's my father grew potatoes in Ireland but I remember him always spraying the crop.
Here hoping for a blight free year.
Bren

Two points to mention. Yes you are quite correct about Blight getting worse as new strains were accidentally brought into the country and have combined with the existing strains.
One of the most blight resistant potatoes around is Sarpo Axona and it is one of the best keeping potatoes around as it keeps till April and May and I am now using the last of my crop.

I agree with Bren: Sarpo Mira were fantastic croppers last year. A pretty ordinary spud culinary wise but otherwise a very heavy cropper, easy to lift and massive haulms for composting. Good storers too I did not have as many as Bren but they were excellent quality stored in paper bags up until the end of February having been lifted the previous September. This year I have put them in again and hope to get good results. I have also got ferline and legend tomato plants as well, I will plant some outdoors to see about their resistance.

However, lets hope we have a blight free summer too.

CoMpO

There is no doubt the last couple of years have been exceptionally bad for potato blight. This is due to the warm wet conditions that prevailed giving rise to many 'smith periods' when blight would spread and infect the plants.

Blight has always been a problem but seems to have got worse in recent years. My view is that there is no doubt that this has coincided with the Organic craze!

Years ago allotmenteers were keen sprayers and carried out methodical preventative spraying at regular intervals to keep blight under control. However the ever increasing number of 'greenhorns' getting involved with allotments and growing up with the 'it is evil to spray' dogma from today's gardening books, newspaper columnists and TV personalities has resulted in the rise of the curse of the blight.

It may be that some others do not share my opinion.

Al the best

Barney

Hi Barney,
You quote:
Blight has always been a problem but seems to have got worse in recent years. My view is that there is no doubt that this has coincided with the Organic craze!
I am very glad that you have said this because I can for sure tell you that what you have written is very very true.
Also Contrary to what has been said it is not best practice to compost Potato or Tomato haulm. Both plants can carry several Viruses which will live in your compost and can cause you untold hassle in the years to come.
The Blight mycelium's host is the Potato Tuber not the Tomato. This is why it is best to BUY new stock every year and NOT save your own Potatoes irrespective if you have had blight or not. It simply isn't worth the risk.
Also because everybody wants a large crop they fall into the age old trap of growing then too close together. They fail to earth-up sufficiently
making no account of rainfall erosion of the mound.
Commercially they are grown at 36" centres and 15" down the row and the yields achieved are far greater than those of the normal gardener.
Because they are wider spaced they do not get the concentration of blight that gardeners do because they are better ventilated. They are also sprayed against blight several times. Not with the outdated Copper Sprays. Modern anti blight sprays treat the leaf only and leave no residue.
JB.

I'm sure it is the wet weather and the prevalence of blight spores in certain areas rather than the increasing popularity of growing organically that is causing blight.

Our garden has been in the family for the past 98 years, gardened without the use of sprays and we don't have a blight problem with either potatoes or tomatoes, so don't blame the organic brigade.

Hi Plumpudding,
Could you kindly explain why more than half of the organic seed varieties were not available last year.
Like me, you garden in a closed environment but when you get to allotments it only takes but one organic person who will not spray who gets blight and everybody on that allotment might just as well destroy their crops because ultimately they will fall foul of blight.
I can remember long before the organic brigade (your term) came about and people sprayed their crops to ward off blight and it was extraordinary to get blight. Since this so called organic explosion the blight has exploded
Sadly, although it is great to grow organically should you wish, it is no good dispensing with common sense, which I fear has come about through people not having enough experience. Too many people writing about organic methods who are also totally inexperienced.
Let common sense prevail and there will be a decrease in the Blight incident. Spraying of Potatoes using the outdated Copper Based Sprays is permissible under organic rules so why will these people not spray.
JB.

Hi Johnboy,
I can see the sense in areas of bad blight infection for everyone to spray, if they are going to try and get a crop.
I just felt like being a bit argumentative!

Can you get away with just growing and harvesting early, or does the blight strike too soon? Obviously farmers growing for the market can't take risks.

I didn't notice that organic varieties were missing - I always save seed potatoes from year to year, so only buy new ones when I want to try a different variety. I can see from everyone else's problems that I am rather fortunate - so far.
PP

Cider Boys wrote:Blight has always been a problem but seems to have got worse in recent years. My view is that there is no doubt that this has coincided with the Organic craze!

Years ago allotmenteers were keen sprayers and carried out methodical preventative spraying at regular intervals to keep blight under control. However the ever increasing number of 'greenhorns' getting involved with allotments and growing up with the 'it is evil to spray' dogma from today's gardening books, newspaper columnists and TV personalities has resulted in the rise of the curse of the blight.

It may be that some others do not share my opinion.

Barney

May I, as a gardener of over half a century's experience make a few comments here?
"the Organic craze" - I assume you mean by this the trend to return to more natural methods of growing.

"the ever increasing number of 'greenhorns' " - This just seems to show scorn for anyone younger than you (and me ). Actually I have learned an enormous amount from younger growers over the past twenty years - crops I would never have heard of let alone thought of growing. If we oldies expect the young to respect us, perhaps we could start by showing them some respect.

Sorry to drift off thread, but I thought your comments needed some response.

Hello Greenman (not to be confused with a Greenhorn)

May I enquire exactly when was this more natural way of growing taking place?

Certainly not in my memory nor in the Victorian age if the old books are to be believed.

There seems to be a myth cultivated (sic) by the Organic Brigade that man farmed and gardened by ‘natural’ ways in the past, I cannot accept this. What is this ‘natural’ way to grow crops? Agriculture is how man controls nature for his benefit and in my view this has always been the case.

The ‘organic craze’ I refer to, is just that - a craze. Given time and a bit of science it will eventually pass as other crazes have. Can you remember when everyone was dancing the Twist? Long forgotten, thank God, except at the occasional drunken wedding reception. Likewise with the organic craze.

Of course you are correct that many a Greenhorn has introduced new ways of growing and have grown crops not previously grown by the Greybeards.

I can assure you that I treat both the young and the not so young with the respect they have earned.

Best wishes

Barney

Hi Plumpudding,
Had you looked at Tucker's Catalogue most of the Organic Potatoes were unavailable due to crop failure. Now I wonder why?
To save your own Potatoes for seed to me is never correct because you never get certified seed. Growing in a closed garden is the only thing in your favour.
There are so many seeds that you can save and save money at the same time but Potatoes, to me, would be a false economy.
There is an absolute load of 'Hog Wash' written about growing as nature intended. Nature never intended for man to invent the spade so that throws this 'as nature intended' bit right out of the window!
Nobody in their right mind wants to use Pesticides of any description but there are times when they are needed. This is what the organic brigade will not admit. Commercially Organic growers use pesticides, generally the out of date ones that do not have the same effect as the more modern ones so they have to be used more frequently. If I am forced to use pesticides I prefer to use ones which do the job and if the instructions for use are adhered to rigidly will do the job efficiently with one hit.
Now having said that I have used 1.5 litres of made up solution in the last 4/5 years and that is all. BUT that small amount would exclude me from being organic. Organic rules do not permit commercial potato growers to use the spray enough and this is why Blight is endemic in organic crops to the detriment of all growers.
JB.

Johnboy wrote:Hi Plumpudding,
Had you looked at Tucker's Catalogue most of the Organic Potatoes were unavailable due to crop failure. Now I wonder why?

Hi Johnboy

You have me foxed there. Tuckers 2008 catalogue listed over 40 Organic varieties with no indication that any were unavailable. I didn't order any, so I don't know how many, if any, did prove unavailable. But there is no indication in the catalogue. Likewise their 2009 catalogue lists 45 Organic varieties.