Potato blight has swept through the allotment. Grown men have been seen tossing their trowels in despair and sinking to their knees, weeping, as the fungal fiend flexes its evil spores from one patch to another, leaving no spud spared. Tell tale signs of brown spotted leaves and soggy looking stems are everywhere and there is no hope. The blight will win and all potatoes are doomed to fail.
Time for operation salvage.
Our four varieties of potato are at various stages of decay but, thus far, the disease has yet to reach underground to the tatties. Here are our recommended next steps…
1. Slash…
Sever ALL plants at the base of the stem.
2. Secure…
Contain the offending foliage within maximum security baggage. Not one leaf should escape.
3. Destroy…
If you can’t send them off in a blaze of bonfire glory on your plot then take them to the deepest dug tip you know.
4. Scoff…
Dig up as many spuds as you think you can eat in the next few weeks. They won’t be good for storage yet.
5. Wait…
After about two weeks the spuds left in the ground should have toughened up their skins and will be more suitable for storing. But after two weeks, the blight might’ve got them first…
You haven’t got blight going by your photo and description. You just have the normal die back that happens. The easiest way to tell is the fact that the brown blotches you have are dry. Blight is always a darker, watery rot.
Obviously it won’t hurt to cut back the foliage, once the die back starts it can be really quick.
Cheers 5olly. Maybe a slightly misleading post, there. But we definitely have blight, including the watery rot you describe wriggling down to the stems. It has been verified by The Allotment King, so it must be the case. I have amended the copy to be more accurate. Alas, I won’t be able to get a new photo until the blight attacks next year…
In that case boo! You’re doing everything right then.
Somehow all the potatoes on the allotment have avoided the blight, but any tomatoes on the plot have succumbed. Are you signed up to get blight alerts on your mobile? I’ve had warnings every day for weeks until this week that is.
Apparently our allotment is very prone to blight. Tomatoes haven’t been grown there since the 1840s. And, yes, I get those blight alerts. We’ve been in a ‘Smith’s period’ for weeks. Wish they would change that terminology…
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