Potato Foilage.

After last years disaster with my potato crop, which was wiped out by blight, I have been keeping a very careful watch on the potato foilage lately.

In fact I can never remember seeing potato foilage looking cleaner or greener, there is not a blemish on any of it and I have 14 rows of different varieties planted.

Last year things were fine until about 20th July, (I think) then the rains came along with humidity,and the rest is history (no potato's).

How are others crop growing, and any sign of blight?

 

Mine are fine, apart from the wind throwing them on the ground (again). But I will spray copper fungicide (prevent!) in the next few weeks.

 

Hi Makka,

Mine are looking fantastic, absolutely going for it. They are two varieties of 2nd earlies and I have an experimental dig the other day and am pleased to say that I'm now eating the most delicious home growns.

I must have been lucky last year as I didn't have any trouble at all. It was my tomatoes that died a death.

 

Mine are doing well too - both the ones in the soil, and the ones in big tubs. the foliage is a bit tall and lanky though.
just like Damage, it was my toms that suffered last year.......

cheers,
Dave

 

Sorry if this appears to be a bit of a hijack...but could you let me know what tubs do you use Dave, as I don't have enough land anymore to plant out spuds.

Cheers.

 

Half of mine are in buckets with five rows in the ground. So far they're looking great. Fingers crossed.

 

Hi Tweaky.

The tubs are big round black ones about 20" or so in diameter, and about the same height, that I think were originally for using on building sites to remove small amounts of soil or waste (a mate kindly gave them to me). The other spuds not in the ground are in old compost bags rolled down, and gradually earthed up (hmmmm.....must do that again tomorrow.......)

Something else I'm trying this year is planting in some old rentacrates in the greenhouse. As they are deep and rectangular, they butt up end to end, so the maximum amount of soil is available for the plants. It also simplifies and speeds up watering, with less waste. With regular round pots, even tightly packed together, there would be spaces between each pot, and they taper down towards the bottom, so for the same number of plants, there would be less soil available.

So far it seems to work much better than the about 10" terracotta pots I used for greenhouse tomatoes last year.
During the hot spell a couple of weeks back, I forgot to water the toms, peppers and aubergines for a few days, and the surface of the soil was bone dry, but the toms were absolutely fine, with no wilting.

I guess it's a better reservoir than lots of round pots - just like the soil can be One problem *might* be overwatering though. But for greenhouse use it's working well, particularly with some oregano plants adding a measure of shade lower down to help prevent evaporation.

I would post some pics, but attachments aren't available as an option for me yet....

Hope this helps a bit

cheers,
Dave

 

Much appreciated Dave. Thank you.

I contemplating going down the Bob Flowerdew road and using car tyres, but even those things can be quite heavy, unsightly and take up a lot of space which I haven't got.:thumb: