Holes in my potatoes

Hi All
I grew a few different types of potatoes this year:

Desiree, low crop but all good condition and some stored in garage still.
Pink Fir Apple, very good crop some stored in garage still most in good condition when harvested.
King Edward, small and low volume when harvested most in very good condition when harvested some still stored in garage.
This is the interesting one,
Maris Piper good crop but most of them have holes in and there appears to be wood lice in many of the holes, has anyone else noticed this they are the only ones that are almost all affected, a real shame as I wanted to change from King Edwards as the crop seems to be quite low and they are often small. But the King Edwards do roast up so well and I was told that Maris Piper were good for roasting also and may be a good choice to change to.

I am intrigued as to why the Maris Piper have been attacked and so much so that I won't be growing them next year!!!

Dave

 

Have they been attacked since they were harvested, or were they attacked in the ground?

Sometimes I have a problem with slugs having a nibble, but that usually happens while they're still in the ground.

 

I think you might find as clueless say's the woodlice could have had a go at your potatoes since they where lifted as I had this problem last year,mine where fine when they were lifted but when I came to use them they where full of woodlice.I only grow Picaso and Kestrel (2nd early's) as I find on my plot I get very little damage from slugs etc.

 

It's not usually the Woodlice that cause the holes, they just use them for shelter. It's probably the black keeled slugs. They live underground and can really mess a potato crop up.

 

Hi All

They were attacked in the ground and I think Zigs has is right as now I think about it a couple of holes did have slugs in and I was late digging them up, I spent all year growing some lovely vegetables and then got called away to work on a survey ship in August and I am still on the vessel tonight. I have been home a few times but all the greenhouse crop was wasted I told the neighbours to take what they like and keep watering but they didn't seem to keep up with it all.

The potatoes are in the garage and have kept really well.

What can I do about the slugs I guess if I turn it all over soon many will be eaten by birds as the pheasants seem to spend a lot of time on the allotment?

Not really keen on using slug pellets on a large area if I can help it, although having said that if it saves the disappointment I suffered in the autumn when I did harvest I think all my save the world policies will go out the window and I am doing my bit by working on the windfarm.

Cheers
Dave

 

Cor, windfarm, wow

Done my bit of working away, glad you can log on here and feel at home

Keeled slugs are really annoying, a few holes in each spud ruins them

You can get nematodes that will kill them, without hurting other wildlife.

If you want to put up a thread with pics about working on the Windfarm i'm sure we'd all love that

 

Hi Zigs

I will try and put some photo's up but the internet in this boat is so sloooow it may take a while but I will try to sort some info out. We aren't at development stage yet because there are many surveys to complete. However I will put something up, I also keep Bees and saved so many Bumble Bees this year I will post something about that as well.

Thanks all for the replies

Cheers

Dave

 

This is just my observation over the years, so I don't know whether others might have noticed the same, but I always find that my tatties are more likely to get slugged attacked if they're in damp ground with a high clay content.

Spuds grown in plenty of manure seem to fair much better against slugs for some reason. I don't know why. Maybe its because in clay, the only bulky organic matter is your spuds, whereas in well manured ground there's still lots of remnants of straw and chewed grass for the slugs to also munch on, or maybe its something to do with acidity, or maybe something else entirely. Maybe even pure coincidence with no logical explanation, but its what I've observed.

 

I get more damage on my heavy clay soil than I do on Sister's light alluvial soil at West Bay. So you could be on to something there Clue

 

Also on heavy clay here, and usually I could guarantee every second or third potato will have a hole in them, this year however I used nematodes and a hole in a spud is a rarity. Tubers where more likely to be damaged by my fork as I was lifting them.

Steve...

 

Ta Steve, useful to know those little Nemo Toads work

 

I had the same problem with maris piper,Iv'egrown desire and slugs don't seem to bother them.
I grow other varities with no problems,they seem to like maris piper.

 

I doubt if wood lice created holes, it's more likely that they moved in after slugs did the excavation. I get wood lice in the polytunnel but they only inflict superficial damage to cucs and leaves at ground level.

 

My guess is that they didn't have enough water, particularly at the crucial stage when they were bulking up.

 

Hi All

Thanks for all the replies, it's interesting that the slugs like Maris Piper and seem to leave Desiree and others alone?!!
I may try King Edwards again but this is the second year I have had small tubers although from memory both years have been quite dry in the summer.
I may even try some of these Nematobes and see how they work with the Maris Piper.

Cheers

DAve