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Talkback: Potato blight

Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
in Talkback
I've seen blight on most potato crops on my allotment site. As for my own crop of earlies, I've recently sheared them all, dug up half of them, and will shortly dig up and store the remaining crop. What I've harvested so far have been great and delicious. I'm reluctant to grow maincrop spuds, for fear of the dreaded plague. Still, you can't beat a good crop of new potatoes!
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  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Our biggest problems were with Colarado Beetle, it meant going out each morning and picking the adult beetle's off and squashing them and also the eggs on underside of leaf. Not a nice job before breakfast. We bought un-chitted potatos on 14/03/08, they chitted and were planted 11/04/08 we are now harvesting, started yesterday. Good crop although on the small side. We also given on 13/04/08 a tray of small chitted potatoes, which have faired a bit better and are cropping well. Watering was a big issue here in Bulgaria. I agree you cant beat a good crop of home grown new potatoes
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I'm in the NE of Scotland. Should my Charlotte potatoes be ready by now? There is loads of foliage, but no flowers. Am I just impatient, or have they gone wrong?
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I am new to gardening and I would love to grow potatoes for christmas but when would I do that would I want to start now and where would I get the seed potatoes
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Live in Mullingar, just outside Dublin. Just spent the last 30 mins cutting down my potato plants....what looked so good only a week ago was quickly going black.....ahhhh all that work gone to waste.....first year giving this a go
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Can you help, have no blight as yet bur then i have very few leaves. Something has eaten them, caterpillar maybe? Will the spuds be ok to eat and what should i do to stop it happening again, its never happened before. Can i also ask why don't plant labels tell you if a plant is prone to slug/snails etc. it's good to know size & position but not much help when your prize echinacea is nibbled to shreds!!!!!
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Breda - look up the larger seed merchants online and you will be offered seed potatoes to plant for a Christmas crop. They will advise when to plant.
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Thanks Marion that is a great help
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    Please help me If I pick all my potatoes now because of blight will I be able to store any for a few weeks, or Is to early for storing
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I am starting to harvest my potatoes now, but some of them have a pink ring in the middle. I've been binning these just in case, but does anyone know what this is and if the potatoes are still edible?
  • Gardeners' World Web UserGardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147
    I always wonder why people bother to buy potato seeds. I just buried my potato peeling into the soil and every year I get lots of potato seedlings sprouting out, which I thin them out and get lots of potato crops from them.
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