Tatties 2017

ME AGAIN. This growing spuds isn't as easy as I 1st thought. Some of my Potatoes have got the dreaded blight. Not surprised in the slightest as it's been flaming ideal blight weather recently. I thought it was natural die back until I looked a bit closer and sure enough it's not. I have just come in from lifting loads of Potatoes that were affected. Not all the tubers are affected but many are. Can I cut off the squidgy/ brown /grotty bits and eat the rest of the Potato? Also now have far too many Potatoes to eat over the next few days. Most of what I have lifted are Anya, so annoying as they have been gorgeous, perhaps I planted too many and they should have been lifted earlier. The ones that are fine and have no signs of blight, am I best to store them in a cool, dark dry place? If not then where? I have had to wash them as otherwise it was difficult to see if they had bad bits as the soil was quite wet when I lifted them so they were pretty dirty.
Also I had a couple of Jersey plants left over which had also got the blight. Any ideas as to whether they are ok as mashed spuds? as they are huge and doubt they'd be nice as the just boiled new wee ones were about a month ago. Definitely will need to do less earlies and more main crop next year. So far my Pink Firs are fine with no sign of blight despite being quite close to where the affected ones were they'll be ok. Thank god I'm not trying to grow stuff commercially, if i was I'd have had a nervous breakdown by now

 

Make freezable 'potato products' out of them, croquettes, fishcakes, cheesy potato scones, etc. and avoid potential deterioration in storage (+ all the hassle of constantly checking through your sacks for rotten, oozing spuds spoiling the good ones around them).

This is where having 5 freezers comes in handy.

 

Many thanks @Scrungee . I really thought I didn't need any more freezer space pre doing this veg growing malarky but think I do now. I already have a big American type fridge freezer and a huge commercial freezer left over from when I ran my business. However that is still stuffed with certain things I grew last season and who the hell knows where all my Celery is going to go I had a slight mishap with sowing....the whole packet came out in a oner and had amazing germination. I must have about 100 Celery plants which I would imagine will need harvesting soon. Thank god we like Celery soup! Certainly don't fancy wading my way through bags of my spuds only to come across some smelly mess of ones that have rotted. The family don't know it yet but there is going to be very little on the menu apart from Potatoes over the next wee while

 

Not the embalming business?

 

, The freezer would have been big enough unless you were over 6ft 3ins! I've already informed daughter that, if it suits, from a financial point of view, to just turf me in the freezer when I pop my clogs until the optimum time she should feel free to do so. I'd better keep going for a while as there is no room for yours truly presently.

 

Dug up my bigguns grown for the 'Heaviest Portatoes' class in the Village Show, got 3 over 2lbs, heaviest 2lbs 7oz, should have been bigger but they got frosted down to the ground at the very end of May.



@misterQ Emptied out my bucket a couple of days ago. I planted a Picasso seed spud in it, and whilst the ones planted in open ground have produced around 8lbs per plant (also knocked down by frost), only got 3lbs 5oz from the bucket. Although kept out of frost, the plant didn't thrive in it and didn't even extend its roots out of the multitude of holes drilled in the base.

 

Hope you win @Scrungee, might not win any prizes for beauty but it's some heavy bu..er! I didn't even bother to weigh my pathetic bucket efforts. Admittedly I did grow them to be early new Potatoes but even tho, a magnifying glass came in handy for my crop.
Just lifted the last of my Anyas. Lost about 20% to blight so will learn for next year.What we have had have been really good and I will definitely grow this variety again. Anya's Mum/Dad (Pink Fir Apples) are just about ready I reckon so will have a furtle round and see how they are going. Hoping they don't succumb to blight too.

 

The air is blue, some of my damned PFAs have now got blight. They looked fine 3 days ago and then all of a sudden when I looked at them today not so. Will there ever be a whole dry day again. I joined up on the Bight watch site and sure enough where I live is on red alert...sigh.
The plants are currently flowering and have been for approx 2 weeks so maybe they are ready anyway?
Question. As the blight is pretty new should I
Cut off all top growth and lift all now?
Cut off all top growth and leave in the ground so skins get tougher and enable better storage?
Leave the plants not affected yet but they are right next door to ones that are?
As we have had flaming on and off rain for the last 3 weeks the ground is very wet and anything I lift is going to be very dirty. Know not to wash spuds (presume correct) but not going to be able to leave them to dry outside as yup it has rained today so grass next to where spuds are planted is wet. Would I be better to take the crop into the stables where at least it's dry but not in sun/wind to help drying? All very complicated for this newbie. Hell I think I might give up this Potato growing malarky and stick to Carrots, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Onions, Garlic and Swede Sweetcorn and Celery which have all been well behaved as have what's growing in the greenhouse thank god!

 

Aww, bother Silu

Cut the tops off and cover ground in straw so you can dig em as needed even if the ground freezes.

Guess it's too wet to spray the remaining plants

Yep, don't leave tubers in sunlight, remember your bottom

 

Is the blight the dreaded Late Blight, or the much milder Early Blight? My spuds lifted a couple of days ago were starting to become affected by Eary Blight.

 

Hardly likely to forget you cheeky wee B! thre was a lot of Andrex needed for 24 hours

Oh @scrungee I'm not too sure. All I know is the leaves have got brown areas on them and the stems are keeling over on some not all of the plants. This happened very quickly as only a few days ago I was thinking how well all was with the PFAs unlike the Anyas which were dreadful. I lifted all the Anyas I could find, some had brown sort of marbling effect, some were gooooey and NOT nice while others were ok. Where all the Potatoes are planted hasn't had any Potatoes grown in it to my certain knowledge for over 20 years, could be the ground has never had Potatoes grown in it for all I know. and there are no Potatoes grown around here that I know of for at least 2 miles, so it's very unlikely that mine have been infected by others I presume. I just think it must be this really soggy/damp/mild weather we have been experiencing for the last 3 odd weeks which has caused the damage.
It's raining funnily enough...sigh so I'm off to pour myself a stiff drink to cheer up and will tackle the sad patch tomorrow, doing what Zigs suggests and remove all the top growth. Hope what's under the soil aren't the size of peas and are edible.

 

Sounds like the serious Late Blight.

All mine have got this year is some yellowing leaves with a few dark spots - Early Blight.

 

Yes @Scrungee having been trying my best to learn stuff of the internet, it looked like the late blight to me just didn't realise there was an early variety too. I also found out that PFA are low in resistance to blight which a pain in the proverbial backside as they are 1 of the few main crop nice waxy salad type spuds.

 

And a late cropping variety, double whammy.

 

B******s. Got blight on plot 2, Cara and Valor, apparently they have some resistance to blight.. they lied! Pretty much like Silu's - dead patches on leaves, those "fake tomatoes" gone brown and stems are looking straggly. Tops been pulled off, bagged up.. the few potatoes that did come up all have blimmin' holes in and one was mush. Digging up tomorrow.. Not looking forward to it :(