The word on the plot is that our potatoes have blight…
Whilst its true to say that our potatoes look less than happy, we’re not convinced its blight….
We have discussed, we have googled and pawed over books…
The more I try to pinpoint exactly what is wrong with our potatoes, the more unclear it becomes… magnesium deficiency, poor soil preparation, rust – who knows??
Some say blight will devastate your plot quickly, others say this is not true… Some say a halo around the marks is the give-away sign, others blackened stems…
It sometimes seems that everyone’s an expert, I wonder how they can be so certain without laboratory tests.. It seems people are very quick to cry blight, blight, blight, panic, panic, panic….
Now of course I would never get caught up in scare mongering and catastrophisation, but I have taken it upon myself to become armed and be part of ‘Blight watch’ .
These guys have scouts out surveying potato fields and give email and SMS alerts for infection risk in your area.. If like me you don’t shy away from information over-load…you can sign up here at the British Potato industry web-site,
So, we dug up a row of potatoes yesterday, and whilst it was certainly not a bumper harvest, there were enough for several scrummy meals…. Now some of the tubers were kinda mushy looking and we looked at each other with dread ’sound the horn – blight attack, blight attack!’. We giggled, embarrassed at the thought of conversations we have had with other plot holders – ‘no that ain’t blight’ we had confidently told them.
So I stuck my nose right into the squishy mess, no foul smell. ‘Stand down men, its not blight’. As I squished the tuber about in my fingers, looking for further clues, I spotted some small whiteish worms/grubs with a line of red dots down each side.
Oh for goodness sake what the hell are they…. Very pretty but ungoogleable it seems…
Anyways, as of 4pm GMT I am totally 100%, unequivocally sure that all our potato problems are due to scab….
I think you’re right to be skeptical. I’ve also noticed a lot of people shout “Blight!” as soon as anything goes wrong with their spuds, but god knows, there are other spud ailments. It’s not the only one.