And then came the Blight!

About a week ago,  when the weather was hot and humid and rainy, I noticed some yellow leaves on the spuds. And some green leaves with the tell-tale black circles on. Blight!!

Of my 6 varieties I am growing this year, the earlies (Accord) were just about finished. The second earlies (Vivaldi) and salad potatoes (Charlotte) were going yellow very quickly.  However, one maincrop (Sarpo Mira) was completely untouched, and two (Kifli & Cara) were only slightly affected.

My neighbours immediately cut down all their potato haulms and encouraged me to do the same.

It's a tough one.  The maincrops are only just now flowering, so the potatoes under the ground will still be quite small.  If I cut them down, they won't grow any more anyway.

So this is what I did. I cut down the Accord, Vivaldi and Charlotte. I didn't buy these for their blight resistance, although traditionally Charlotte is meant to have good resistance to tuber blight, if not on the leaves.

I will leave these under the ground for a full 3 weeks. By which time any fungal spores in the ground are meant to be inactive and the tubers safe to lift without infecting them.

The bed of Cara have a few yellowing leaves, which I have carefully picked off.  Traditionally Cara has had strong blight resistance, hence their nickname "The Allotmenteer's Friend". However in recent years new strains of blight have taken up residence in the UK. The latest, called I think Blue 13, is really nasty and I suspect a lot of our potato-resistance databases are out of date nowadays.  So whether my Cara survive or not without me chopping them down waits to be seen.

Kifli and Sarpo Mira are 2 varieties from the Sarvasi family. The story goes that in the Soviet era, this family were told to develop blight-resistant potatoes. When the Soviet Union broke up,  they came to the west with some of their most resistant spuds hidden in suitcases.

They have continued their breeding programme here, and I buy their varieties (through Thpmpson & Morgan).  Sarpo Mira is not the tastiest of spuds, and can be rather strangely shaped, but if everything else dies, at least these should survive. Kifli is a more recent variety - I have read conflicting accounts of its resistance - so now we will find out. Incidentally. for a maincrop, Kifli tastes superb, just like new potatoes.

So I have been picking off the leaves from the Cara and Kifli  and hoping for the best.

Now that the humidity has gone and the temperature is high, (Summer has finally arrived!!) I am hoping that the disease will become inactive.

Incidentally, there is conflicting advice as to what to do with the haulms. Most old sources say they should be burned. But some more recent authorities suggest they can be put on the compost heap. I have decided to compost them, though if I have any infected tubers, I will dispose of them elsewhere. I don't use that compost on the spud beds anyway.

The tomatoes in the greenhouse have been largely unaffected. (The blight-resistant varieties of tomato are far less resilient!) I did find the early stages of blight on a couple of leaves, which I carefully picked off.  After that I  kept the greenhouse door closed until the temperature soared a couple of days ago. When going into the greenhouse I made sure that I did that business before doing anything else on the allotment, to reduce the risk of bringing blight in.

I think I might have have got away with it!

Photo Journal June 29th 2012

What a difference 6 weeks makes in the allotment!  (I did take some pictures 3 weeks ago, but then went away on holiday and forgot to post them. )

 The dwarf french bean bed, with some onions guesting at the back

The ones in the middle of the bed were raised inddors and planted under cloches in mid-May. At the same time I sowed the ones at the front direct.

 This variety is called purple teepee. Lots of flowers now. Hopefully lots of beans later.

 The peas are doing well...

 The onions that Iwere sown in the spring are looking healthy.

 The shallots have done well this year - some of this year's shallots are bigger than many of last year's onions! They are starting to yellow and will soon be lifted.

 This year my onions have been superb - ok a few of them have bolted, but the rest are huge. Whether it is because of all the rain we have had this year, or whether because this year I decided to grow the alliums in well-manured land vacated by the spuds I can't say. Next year I will certainly put them in after the spuds again, and water thoroughly in dry weather.

 The 2 broad bean beds. The 2 white poles show where there ought to be a path - it's a bit of a struggle to get down there though. The autumn-sown broad beans on the left are starting to come to the end of their ife and are yellowing slightly. It's difficult to think, though, that the 2 beds were sown nearly 6 months apart.

 Here is my 5 potato field, looking healthy as anything. I have grown them on the flat, with only minimal earthing up,, each potato about 18 inches from the next in all directions, in 5 beds. I did see one where the leaves were starting to roll, so pulled that one up straight away. It might (or might not) be potato leaf roll virus, but I'm not taking any chances.

 The sweetcorn has gone in where the sprouting broccoli was 6 weeks ago. I started them off in pots and put them out at the beginning of June, and they are growing quickly now.

 The squashes and marrows look widely spaced just now, but in a few weeks I expect there to be a forest. The pots next to the plants are for watering, at least for the first few weeks. By the time the leaves cover the pots I expect them to be able to look after themselves.

 My first courgette of the year.....

 Beetroot and friends

The bed wearing hairnet is full of umbelifers, ie members of the carrot family. This is part of my  battle against the dreaded carrot fly. Unfortunately the net is a bit too tight for the parsnips.....

 Here you can see my summer cauliflower interplanted with lettuce. Unfortunately they were eaten by pigeons 3 weeks ago and are just recovering. The lettuce meanwhile seem to think that the bed belongs to them.......

My first system of trying to keep the birds off didn't work, so I am now using plastic milk cartons over bamboo sticks to support nets which are pegged down.

 

The tomatoes in the greenhouse have started to set fruit, though it will be a few weeks before they are ripe.

Chillies and sweet peppers in the greenhouse border.

 A prize bloom in the middle of all the vegetables.

The summer cabbages.