Potato blight

[Odsox]

It's all about to start again, potato blight weather.
Only the west of Ireland at the moment, but that's where it starts anyway.
Very early this year too.

Just out of interest, this is what we get here on our weather forecast ... http://www.met.ie/forecasts/warnings.asp

[Green Aura]

Brilliant weather forecast, Tony!

Daren't tell you OHs response when I read it to him (I think I may have to have him put down ).

[Millymollymandy]

Oh for god's sake, the poor little things are barely out of the ground......

Right off to tell the OH and get the bordeaux mix out, we are going to be prepared this year. If you've got warnings of it then I'll probably get it before you. For the first time this week there are forecasts for some west wind instead of the bloody north and east winds (so warmer weather) and then they warn of blight!!!

[Odsox]

Well they got the weather right.
We have had fog and drizzle for 24 hours. The drizzle has now stopped and hazy sunshine has come out, so we now have a temperature of 24c and 98% humidity ... so thick I can't see across the bay or any of the mountain tops.
At least most of the plants are loving it, especially the grass on my lawn which is almost knee deep again ... and of course too wet to mow.

[Green Aura]

98% humidity - isn't that under water?

[SaveSomeGreen]

i heard a great thing on farming today about a chap who farms with a row of trees between each row of spuds (more than our allotments etc) and coppiced them for fuel and found that whenever he suffered from blight each consecutive row was shielded by the trees in between.. maybe a smaller version could be tried with a non blight affected plant in between rows of the lovely spud?

[Millymollymandy]

The frosted leaves on my plants, a few days later, look very much like blight! Obviously it isn't as I can tell from the underside but it will be hard to spot it so I'll have to be extra vigilant. However still no rain on the horizon and the forecast is 10 days of hot sunny weather - I'm happy about that but I also really want rain!

[Annpan]

My potatoes are only 1 inch out of the ground!!!! Having said that, I don't think I have had blight before, manky wireworm and slug eaten potatoes (the type you find when you chop it in half on the chopping board) but never blight... Looking very drizzily today though

[Odsox]

i heard a great thing on farming today about a chap who farms with a row of trees between each row of spuds (more than our allotments etc) and coppiced them for fuel and found that whenever he suffered from blight each consecutive row was shielded by the trees in between.. maybe a smaller version could be tried with a non blight affected plant in between rows of the lovely spud?

Hmm, not sure this is correct. Blight (here anyway) is aggravated by still, damp, stagnant air.
When I get it, it always starts in the middle of my patch and the plants on the outside and at the ends of the rows usually remain OK.
The recommended way to grow potatoes in Ireland is to plant the rows east/west so the the prevailing wind can blow between the rows, so I think hemming them in with trees would make matters worse, especially getting dripped upon by overhanging branches.
Only my opinion mind.

[patR]

In the book I have about blight, it does say that its 'wind spread' as its spores float , so maybe the tree idea stopped that and limited the damage.
I also panicked a few weeks ago as ours turned black and wet on the tops .. over night almost.. then my husband realised the windscreen on the car was frosted... , but they've gone brown and crisy now and seem to be picking up... we dug a few the other day for what is for me the best spuds in the world... the small baby new ones.. yummy..

[SaveSomeGreen]

This Chap had been doing it for ages and the idea of the trees barrier protecting was the one put across by the interviewer, Seemed like a pretty good method.. He was certainly Chirpy enough!

[Millymollymandy]

In the book I have about blight, it does say that its 'wind spread' as its spores float , so maybe the tree idea stopped that and limited the damage.
I also panicked a few weeks ago as ours turned black and wet on the tops .. over night almost.. then my husband realised the windscreen on the car was frosted... , but they've gone brown and crisy now and seem to be picking up... we dug a few the other day for what is for me the best spuds in the world... the small baby new ones.. yummy..

Oh bum, I was about to say well if you've got baby spuds already then I'm going to dig one of mine up to see....... then I saw you were in Portugal!

[Odsox]

I'm going to dig my first root on Sunday, I'll let you know what I find.
Hopefully they will be ready as a man can only eat so much rice and pasta.