Potato Blight Alert

19 July 2010

The weather in many parts of the country (and sadly in my own garden) is perfect for potato blight infection.  If you Grow your own potatoes or tomatoes (and I'd thoroughly recommend that you do) blight, caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans, is something you dread! 
If you see the classic symptoms of greyish brown to black blotches on the top growth there is nothing for it other than to cut every last bit of infected haulm (as the top-growth is known) down, clear it up, bin it or burn it (don't compost it) and then harvest the tubers as promptly as possible, ideally on a dry day. The logic for all this activity ?  Quite simply that , done promptly, you should succeed in preventing spores from the haulms from washing down on to the tubers.  This means that although this prematurely harvested crop will be disappointingly small, at least the tubers you do get should be healthy and should store without deteriorating.

And remember that if it attacks your outdoor tomatoes (those grown in greenhouses are rarely infected) you'll need to clear these up and bin or burn too.  Don't ;eave any haulms around or risk composting them as this is likely to cause you more problems (and earlier on) next year !
 I've had no success with the so-called blight resistant varieties of tomato that I have tried (they seem to succumb each and every time!), but there ARE some potatoes that seem to show brilliant resistance.  Called Sarpo Mira and Sarpo Axona  they are definitely worth considering for next year!

Use these links to share Pippa Greenwood's updates.