Potato Blight

I've got a few stems that are going soft with spud blight (not had before) now, do i take off all the haulms and leave spuds in the ground or get rid of halms and dig up spuds and store and keep an eye on them
I don't need the ground and the halms will be on the fire

 

Take off halms and leave em in the ground till needed, i've had some blighted ones keep thru till February like that

 

Thank you Zigs, the blight is only one a few plants which i've allready taken off the halms and a few halms near to the blight ones, would it be ok to leave the rest of the halms or pull up the lots , i have 3 plots of spud around the garden

 

Spuds I'd dose them with copper.

I tend to hold off if I can on the toms as that stuff is not nice on the fruit.

 

I was just thinking it is a bit early to stop the spuds forming and getting bigger, if they are maincrop.
If the tops could be saved for another few weeks then maybe the crop would be better overall.

Regarding toms, I try not to spray until I see the first signs, as i hate that stuff all over the fruit.
I think holding toms back from blight is more to do with the weather than much else, I find the spay is only effective if you have the weather on your side.

 

Minr are first earlys and second earlys, i'm going to leave the haulms on for a few more days then if i see the stems going soft then i'll take them off and have a big bonfire

 

First earlys should be just a memory by now
Second, ok, but probably coming to an end.

 

I've found that as Pete says spraying spuds with copper does hold back blight. However it isn't a perfect 'cure' and chopping off the halms when the virus spreads helps keep the spuds clear of blight. You can reduce the chances of blight on maincrop spuds by planting early under protection (black plastic and then later fleece) this will make the crop mature a bit (up to a month) earlier and reduce the risk of blight that tends to arrive in the later summer months.
Tomatoes are another matter as Shiney has said. The fruits are above ground and easily infected and don't keep well. What I do now is harvest the toms at first sign of blight and ripen the green ones indoors and greenhouse in trays.