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Scottish seed potato merchants who supply the UK horticultural market with top quality seed to grow in their gardens or allotments. We supply garden centres and allotment societies aswell as selling direct to the public.

Sunday, 28 June 2009

Full Blight Warning

I have just received notice of a full smith period which means that blight is now a real possibility. The best thing you can now do is spray your haulms with Dithane or Bordeux mix to protect your crops. Once you have blight there is no cure so prevention is the key. Try and spray at a time when the mixtures can be absorbed into the haulms and not be washed off by rain.
Posted by JBA seed potatoes at 16:24
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4 comments:

  1. Veg4Show28 June 2009 at 20:19

    I have sprayed 3 times already this year and 2 bags had blight 2 days ago. Each time I sprayed we had at least 3 days of no rain. I dont have much luck, I even took the time to ensure I sprayed every leaf even under.

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  2. JBA seed potatoes28 June 2009 at 21:22

    You must have been unlucky to still have got blight. The problem is that these chemicals need applied every 7 days and they only kill the spores that are present at the time because as the leaf grows it makes new foliage that has not been sprayed.

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  3. NYspudmanfromUK28 July 2009 at 05:22

    You may not have too many followers in the US but, here in the Northeastern US, we are under real blight threat because of the wet spring and summer. June was the wettest June on record and July has been fairly wet too and, in the last week, we have had heat and humidity - probably ideal conditions for blight. I read last week that commercial growers from Ohio to Maine have blight issues.

    I am growing All Blues (Congos) - a late variety. Ideally, they would have another five weeks in the ground but I am thinking of harvesting early to avoid blight and risk infecting my tomatoes. I don't want to spray my potatoes. I'm checking the vines daily and, so far so good. And my tomatoes also look healthy, with no sign of infection.

    I think next year I will grow all my potatoes in bags and containers and I have three of your potato bags for the purpose and various other containers. I'm hoping that keeping the haulms off the ground might prove better protection. This has been an exceptional year in the Northeast, perhaps on the same scale as British growers suffered in last year's deluge.

    What do you think of my ideas?

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  4. JBA seed potatoes28 July 2009 at 08:34

    I like our ideas NY man but with blight spores being carried in the wind it can sometimes be a case of luck rather than skill to avoid blight in your crops. We have to spray every 7 days to prevent blight and so far we are blight free. I don't think congo will have much blight resistance.
    I am still looking into sending potatoes and my potato planter bags to the US but it would be easier with an agent to sell them for me.

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