Blight ????

[sunflower3]

I just noticed that several of my potato plants are getting the blight on the bottom leaves. Should I dig the potatoes even though the plant is not ready to be dug or should I wait?? also if it's just a few is my soil no good any more or can I save it buy digging the potatoes and tossing the plants?? any help would be great. thanks Karen.

 

[Blueaussi]

I don't know if you need to dig the plants right away, but I have read n all the fuss about late blight this year that the spores can only over winter in potatoes. So, yes, you should at some point dig all tubers and toss them and the plant part out.

 

[sunflower3]

so I will need to throw away all the potatoes and the plants??

 

[Blueaussi]

Well, you can probably eat the potatoes if they're ok, but don't leave any in the ground overwinter. And, as I said, I don't know if you need to dig that plants right away. All my experience with late blight has been in tomatoes. Once it started in tomatoes, you either treated heavily with Daconil fungicide or you kissed your tomatoes goodby. Serenade is a new product on the market that is organic and is supposed to slow late blight down long enough for you to harvest a crop, but I have not tried it.

There have been a lot of articles about late blight this year, though, and they all say that it only overwinters in live tissue, and that most likely culprit in northern gardens is potatoes left in the ground.

So, maybe you can treat now so you can harvest your potatoes, and check carefully to make sure you get all the tubers up.

 

[swindy]

Sunflower here is a link about the blight. It can be very bad.
http://www.plantmedics.com

 

[sunflower3]

Thanks for the link swindy it has lots of information. I'm going to try the home remedy since it's only a few plants and see if it woks or not. The blight is bad here people are pulling out plants like crazy because it rains every day it has hit everyone, they are saying what few tomaotes they get on the tomato farms will be priced high. I think i'm going to stock up on sauce before they decide to hike the price up on that, i have so coupons and can save so now at a cheaper price. thanks for the help.

 

[Blueaussi]

More links with information from Cornell

http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/lateblight/late.htm

http://blogs.cornell.edu/hort/2009/...ease-killing-tomatoes-and-potatoes-this-year/


The Cornell web site rocks!

 

[woodstock]

Blue, I was a agriculture sec at a cornell ext for 15 yrs, and also worked with the MG program.....so yes, cornells info rocks.....NC has a great site as does Ohio....

there is alot of blight here, and homeowners are ripping up their tom plants....there is also alot of blossom end rot from all the rain we have had and cool temps at night....it just started to warm up nights a week ago....not a good summer for growing toms at all...