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resusing soil after harvest of potatoes with scab?
nalini
Posts: 3
Im a newbie and still learning. I have googled for about an hour and cant really get a straightforward answer so hoping you can help
Can I reuse the soil for any other crop, after scab on my red potato crop? It was a compost mix Iused to grow them and they werent too badly affected.
should I add anything to it to prevent scab affecting new crop? Ideally Id like to grow our mainstay vegetables like carrots, peas, onions etc..but of course i need to consider that it is now mid August. ...and from what i have read I shouldnt grow potatoes again in the bag... im not sure i want to use the bag again after this. Is it better in pots? thanks
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Posts
Scab on potatoes is caused by a lack of lime, so basically your compost was too acid. It only affects potatoes so there is no danger to any other crop. However, having said that, most Vegetables prefer a slightly alkaline soil so if you want to grow something else in this compost you would need to add some lime and obviously some plant food for the next crop.
Hi nalini. If you're using one of the commercial potato bags (or similar) Runner beans would be a good alternative next year. You really don't need a lot of room. Put 3 canes in the bag (tied into a 'wigwam') and 1 plant at each cane. Feed and water well. Scab is caused in part by dry soil so I'm guessing you might not have watered your potatoes enough. The thing with Runner beans is that they are thirsty plants but reward you with loads of beans if you water well. This also has the bonus of helping to kill of the scab virus in the soil as it hates the wet.
The scab fungus only affects potatoes (and, I should imagine, other plants in the same group, such as sunflowers and tomatoes). This is one reason why we always rotate crops.And, as Berghill says, it thrives in alkaline soil - garden compost and particularly grass cuttings are generally acidic and their liberal use helps discourage the problem, wherever you grow the spuds.
Beans (and peas), on the other hand, prefer it neutral, or even slightly alkaline. Onions might be OK, and you could plant an overwintering variety like Red Baron now for a crop early next summer. Or garlic. They would come out almost in time to grow runner beans next summer.
But if you're growing in a container the soil/compost will soon get exhausted - it ought to be renewed for each crop really. Then you can adjust the mix to suit whatever you want to grow. Do you have anywhere you can grow veg in the ground?
Just re-reading that, I disagree with Berghill - it's alkaline soil, i.e. lime, in which the scab fungus thrives and acid soil discourages it.
Apologies, senior moment. Yes too much lime, not a lack of it. But as said it only affects potatoes.
THANKS FOR ALL THE REPLIES!
Steve 309
thank you for the comprehensive re3ply. we live in a garden which has a lot of old concrete to one side and being in east Kent it is very heavy soil. None of it is suitable to grow straight into (im told by my f-I-l) so -as trying to have a bed would be a bit too much for me to attempt on my own I am growing in large pots and soil bags. The Kale has grown fantastically -despite the caterpillars so a little disappointed with these potatoes but I suspect from the replies that ti was a combination of a few days not watering (I didn't have time/energy) and the overly limey soil. Fortunately Icouldnt get hold of lime at the store so the soil remains as it is. My other potatoes (white) did very well which yielded a lot of potatoes. I will feed the soil some nutrition and then plant some other veg non potatoe genus variety. Not bad for a beginner so far! Much encouraged by such comprehensive and well meaning replies. thank you. Nalini
nalini,
we're ALL still learning.
If you ever meet anyone who claims to know it all : laugh in his face.
déja vu moment then.
BJW