giving up the fight...

against blight this year. A couple of days ago I noticed the first signs on the Picasso potatoes and removed what I thought was all the infected foliage but it's spreading rapidly and has now got to the Roosters so no choice but to cut everything down to ground level and hope the tubers will be safe.

Once it takes hold there really is nothing you can do except offer up a prayer and cross your fingers.

If there is an upside it is that the plants finished flowering a couple of weeks ago so there should be something of a crop underneath.

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Permalink Reply by Darren Blick on August 1, 2012 at 7:50

Hopefully Colin, with the amount of rain we have had, you may be lucky and find they have grown well before the blight hit

Mine eventually got the blight but my crop wasn't too bad at all

Some people watch the blight go down the stem and pull out the tops before it gets to the bottom

I don't like to take the chance and cut the tops off straight away

One the tops have been cut off, it may pay to cover the ground to prevent getting too wet or the spuds may well rot away

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Permalink Reply by Colin Robinson on August 1, 2012 at 21:51

Thanks for that tip, Darren. We've had a deluge here today but it's supposed to be much drier tomorrow so I should be able to sheet them over once the sun has dried the soil a bit.

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Permalink Reply by chocolatelikesnow on August 1, 2012 at 23:06

Blight got me a couple of weeks ago (never had it before). We cut everything back pretty much straight away. Weather depending, I am planning to dig some up on Friday.

Just before it struck I dug up some Pentland Javelin and some of them were huge, so I am hoping that all the rain will have done the same to my maincrop.

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Permalink Reply by Colin Robinson on August 7, 2012 at 21:25

I dug up the last of the potato crop today, the blighted ones, and was quite surprised at the yield. The Picasso averaged 4.5 lbs per seed with the best bag coming in at 5.5 lbs. Not bad considering they were lifted early and the weather they've had to put up with. Picasso is definitely one to grow again next year as it has the potential for huge yields with lots of good size tubers. The Roosters were a bit of a disappointment but again, lifted weeks before they should have been.