potato blight

Yup, we have blight on our potatoes. Not really a surprise, we have been watching, and getting suspicious we were seeing the first signs, and then today it was clear, black/gray spots on most of the plants, though not, thankfully, at the big slimey mess stage.  We have been hearing reports of blight in the Westcountry, and the conditions have been ideal for blight, so figured it was only a matter of time.  We had chosen blight resistant varieties.. what we don’t know is have they been resisting, or does it make no difference.

Anyway, not wishing for it to spread, and in the hope of saving our crop, we have cut all the tops, and had a bonfire.

We did ponder what was going on underground with our maincrops, and so dug a sickly looking plant of each variety, figuring if they were teeny, we might not bother, and if they were slimey we might have spend the next four hours digging them up. As it goes, the tubers themselves look fine. The cara ones are lovely white with pink eyes, and the desiree gave a really good yield for just one plant, with loads of baker sized ones.  We also dug the last of our earlies, valor, and they all seem unblighted.. yay.

The next question is whether to dig or not.  There appear to be two schools of thought.. one says dig, wash inspect for blight and store, and the other says leave in the ground. Last year we were struck with potato blight much earlier, dug the lot, washed, dried  and stored and got away with it.. but we had a lot less, and only fed ourselves for three months on them.  I think we shall probably dig them up, as it worked before.  I just hope we get to keep the harvest.

I was careful and washed and even changed my clothes before visiting the outdoor and greenhouse tomatoes.  I expect they will get blight too, especially as they get rain water, but you have to try.