Spud worries

On a couple or three of our Spuds, the stalks are going black and the plant is wilting away. Two on the early crop and one on the main crop, in different beds. We planted about 45 earlies and 45 main crop in total, and all the others look fit and healthy.

Is this one of those things that just happen, ie some sort of 'weakness' in those particular tubers, or is there a more deep seated problem. (ie should I panic now or later?)

 

I'd panic now, and google 'potato blight' for some pics and a description to see if yours look like it.

 

No it's not just one of those things Doogle. It sounds like a real problem. I'd get googling for potato diseases and have the affected plants out. Hope it all goes well for you.

 

There have been as-good-as Ziltch Smiths Periods this season, so only likely to be blight if you had it last year and weren't fanatical about hygiene, disposal of infected material, and sterilizing in general.

Or you were unlucky enough to have imported it by some other means (growing tubers that were not certified virus free, or similar)

OR it is not Blight (picture would probably help)

 

Thanks for the responses.

I'll post some photos tonight, but having Googled around, it looks like Blackleg.

Both beds were newly dug out this year, I suppose it's possible there was something nasty lurking there. All Tubers were purchased from a reputable Garden Centre, but I must admit, I didn't check if they were certified virus free.

 

"Both beds were newly dug out this year, I suppose it's possible there was something nasty lurking there. All Tubers were purchased from a reputable Garden Centre, but I must admit, I didn't check if they were certified virus free."

None of which points to blight ... so fingers-crossed!

 

Well, there were 3 plants suffering in the Earlies bed, spread quite far apart from each other which leads me to believe that the originals were infected. This is one of them



One in the Main Crop bed:



As I said before, it looks like Blackleg from the pictures I've seen on the 'net.

I've uprooted all the infected plants, including what's left of the original tuber, and removed all their growing potatoes, which look sizeable and in good health (I chopped one in half to see if there was any sign of softness or discolouration and there wasn't).

There weren't any new tubers on the affected plant in the Main Crop bed, the original tuber was just a squashy mess.

We've checked the labels and the originals were certified Virus Free. From what I understand Blackleg is a bacterial disease (as opposed to a virus), or is that being pedantic?

I'm wondering whether Blackleg can re-transmit itself in much the same way the Black Spot can with Roses, eg. infect nearby plants through 'splash back' when it rains. Perhaps covering the areas I've uprooted with plastic or something would help, or am I just getting paranoid?

 

Thanks, John. The plan is to operate a 4 year rotation system and Mrs Doogle has updated our planning spreadsheet with some notes about this problem.

 

"From what I understand Blackleg is a bacterial disease (as opposed to a virus), or is that being pedantic?"

No, not being pedantic at all! Fungus spores likely to be blown on the wind. Bactirea likely to need "transmitting" to new location - ride on a tuber, or give a plant to a friend!

Cleaning any tools you used (Jeyes Fluid or somesuch) would be a good idea (this advice probably too late if you didn't do it at the time)

 

Looks like I was too late, there's about 4 more plants showing the same signs.

The originals were brought from Perrywoods and I've kept the label which states:

Grade: EC3
EC Plant Passport - RP ZP-a6, ZP-d1

Having spent a few minutes looking through the EEC regulations I happened upon this

Seems that we have bought Grade 3 whereas Grade 1 would have been better.

Something to remember to check for next year.

 

Thats a very useful piece of info you have come up with there Doggle. I for one will be making a note of that of my spreadsheet
thanks
robert