The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: johnmac on August 22, 2011, 07:41:31 pm
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Noticed a few Months ago the tattie leaves went a bit discoloured, put it down to a couple of nights ground frost. First earlies were fine but the leaves have wilted on all my main crops?!? My main crops are in a new raised bed, heavy rain has brought a lot to the surface.. Green!... And the remaining good uns have raised 'warts' on them??
I'm assuming it's blight??
I've been peeling them and eating them... Still tasty! And no upset stomachs yet!
Does this mean blight will stick around forever now it's there??
On the plus side, the beetroot and baby carrots are lovely!
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The raised warty bits are scab caused by not enough water or possibly not enough nutrients. The tatties are perfectly edible just not very beautiful. Potatoes need to be either earthed up or grown through a light-excluding membrane to prevent the top ones going green - some varieties tend to grow deeper so are less prone to greening. I grow mine on the flat and earth them up so I don't know how others who grow in raised beds cope with keeping out the light.
Blight causes very specific black patches on the leaves and stems before the plant dies then the tubers have soft rotten areas. Black leg causes black rotten stems just above ground level and then the plant collapses. From your description it doesn't particularly sound like blight so it would be worth checking in a good book or pics online to compare your foliage with blighted foliage - or put a photo on here. If it is blight you need to rotate the bed used for growing potatoes and be very careful with hygiene in the garden ie destroy/burn the haulms and certainly don't leave them lying around or compost them. Blight is a fungus so be careful not to shake the haulms near other susceptible plants such as tomatoes - put them directly into a sack at the veg bed.
There is no problem with eating tatties from plants with blight if you can find any unaffected tubers, but they won't store.
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its great to have you back Fleecewife :bouquet: :wave:
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Dr Hessayon's book on vegetables is realy got with diagrams and pictures.
Very good for spot diagnosis of problems.
I thoroughly recommend his books.
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Thanks for the info. The foliage from the potato plants has all but died away, so I've removed what's left.
(http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e340/johnmac1979/43d75cb1.jpg)
Here's an image of a mildly effected potato with raised blacky/brown 'warts' on the outside of the skin. The potato is still firm, and once peeled can be eaten.
The other batches are a mixed bag, some fine others with warts, and some a bit squishy!
I would t say under watering has been an issue, the climate here, damp, heavy rain, humid has been far from ideal.
Oh well! I think I'll go for potatoes in pots next year with fresh new soil to be on the safe side.