Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Wire worms have destroyed my potato crop!

mailiLvOdp85mailiLvOdp85 Posts: 4
in Problem solving
I have lost over 75% of my potatoes to wire worm - and, I suspect, bigger worms and slugs this year.  Spud after spud riddled with holes and brown/black rot as a result.  Does anyone have any advice?  I've scoured the Web and most references to wire worm acknowledge the problem but don't seem to treat it as serious.  It is when you lose as much as I have.  How do commercial famers - especially organic ones - produce tubers that we can use with confidence whilst I'm turning up inedible roots?
«1

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Hi and welcome to the forum 😊 

    Tell us more ... are you growing potatoes in an established veg plot or a newly cultivated area?

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • mailiLvOdp85mailiLvOdp85 Posts: 4
    Hi Dovefromabove and thanks for rapid response.  I'm growing Marfona, Wilja and, I think, Arran Pilot.  It's an established allotment which I took on four years ago: ie this is my fourth harvest.  Soil is clay based though I've been working in organic matter - rotted horse manure and compost.  I do try to rotate; beans were on this part of the plot last year so no fresh organic matter added this year.  We had the weather most people have had: hot, drought conditions around Easter, frost in May which turned all the new potato shoots black but then they recovered, more heat in mid-summer.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147

    Wireworms are more often found in land that has recently been reclaimed from pasture, which is why I asked what I did.  When I had a smallholding and we turned some former meadowland into veg patch we dug it over, fenced it and kept chickens on it for the summer and they cleared the ground of pests ... its a traditional method, but of course isn't possible for everyone, so if you can't run chickens on it,  I would dig the area over and leave it fallow for the winter to let the birds get rid of whatever it is, wireworms or slugs, or both.  

    The other advice I would give is all contained in this article so I may as well link to it 

    https://www.gardenfocused.co.uk/fruitarticles/pest-disease/wirewoms.php

    As you also mention slug damage, I can really recommend the use of slug specific nematodes ...  here they have dealt with most of the little grey keel slugs that live underground and love to eat potatoes.  

    Good luck  :)

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    Wireworms are usually a major problem when planting in newly made beds after grass is removed.
    It may well be that your problem is actually keeled slugs.
    Keeled slugs actually live underground, eating roots and tubers. Common in damp soils that are rich in organic matter, they'll ruin crops of potatoes by tunnelling into them and eating out large holes.
    Almost impossible to control as they do not eat the slug pellets. You could try the Nematodes where you intend planting your potatoes next season.
    Sadly I know of one farmer who had to give up on Potatoes as the slugs were so much of a problem.

  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    I sympathise as I had exactly the same problem last year and decided simply never to attempt to grow potatoes again.  Possibly not the ideal solution for somebody with an allotment I accept.  The area had been a veg garden for years but had been left unused for a few years prior to planting the spud crop.  No grass, and all weeds had either been sprayed or hoed out during those unused years.
  • mailiLvOdp85mailiLvOdp85 Posts: 4
    Hi folks.  Thanks for rapid response again.  It looks as if nematodes may need to be part of the solution.  The article was helpful Dove.  Does make me feel that I'm seeing some wireworm but probably more slug.  This is my first experience of asking a question on GW Forum and it's been good so far.  I suspect I'll be back with more questions...!
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Glad you found it helpful. 
    Good luck 👍 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    Can't really help with wireworm, but if it turns out you do have a keeled slug problem too, I can highly recommend the 2nd early "Kestrel" which (unlike all other varieties I've tried here) is always untouched.  "Sarpo Mira" also does well with the added bonus of being blight resistant.
    I have used slug nematodes successfully on other areas of the garden, but the keeled slugs in the veg plot soil didn't seem to be reduced significantly - I suspect the nematodes didn't get deep enough in the soil and/or my timing of the application and the weather weren't right, so may try again if I ever fancy growing different varieties.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • mailiLvOdp85mailiLvOdp85 Posts: 4
    Thanks Bob.  Useful advice and I've seen Kestrel.  Worth a try.
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    Wireworm holes are really narrow and often still have the little blighter in them sticking out of the potato, there isn't much you can do about them the parents in law grow 10 or so hectares of organic potatoes and if it is after grass then they will lose 20-30% in some areas. On an allotment if you have grass paths or there is grass between you and the neighbours you're not really going to be able to get rid of them.
    My problem is voles.. they eat half of every potato. sigh.
Sign In or Register to comment.