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Post by farmerjack41 on Jul 18, 2021 13:01:14 GMT -5
Checking to see if anyone has found a good spray to help control blight in potatoes. Everything I find that rated for potatoes is only found in Europe for some reason. There is a Bayer garden product, but again can only find it solid in Europe. I presume there must be something out there that would at least help.
Have practiced good crop rotation, but the spores must be heavy in the ground. Have alway used good inspected seed spuds. This is the second year in a row that the problem has been quite bad.
Thanks for any suggestions you might have.
Jack
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Post by paquebot on Jul 18, 2021 15:46:08 GMT -5
If you can find it, Serenade is good. Never used it on potatoes but works on everything that affects tomatoes. It is also certified organic.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by brownrexx on Jul 18, 2021 18:39:21 GMT -5
Are you talking about blight on the leaves or scab on the tubers?
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Post by farmerjack41 on Jul 18, 2021 20:17:02 GMT -5
brownrexx, blight on the leaves. Causing plants to die off eventually. Never noticed a problem on the potato itself.
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Post by brownrexx on Jul 19, 2021 8:08:43 GMT -5
I am sorry to hear this farmerjack41, If your plants have Late Blight is a very serious disease of potato foliage and it will kill the plants and rot the tubers. The spores are spread on the wind and develop when conditions are right which means warm and humid. It is the same Late Blight that affects tomatoes and it killed my entire crop one year. It looks like sunken brown irregularly shaped blotches on the leaves and it moves FAST. Some try to prevent Late Blight with anti-fungals but there is no cure once it is present. The spores fall from the leaves and reach the tubers so some people cut the foliage off immediately when they see infection and burn it. This means that you will be harvesting smaller potatoes but at least you will get a crop. Good Luck.
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Post by farmerjack41 on Jul 19, 2021 10:10:09 GMT -5
Thanks brownrexx, was aware of what you wrote, but had high hopes someone had different information than I. Hard to understand why sprays are not available in the U.S., only in Europe. The big potato farmers here inject a gas into the ground to kill the spores, plus they can obtain a commercial spray to be used during the season. The equipment used for injection of gas , is so large, it would cover my small 2500 sq ft garden, just to park it. Will be breaking up new ground for spuds next year. Also will be going back to all drip line irrigation, getting away from overhead watering.
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Post by paulf on Jul 19, 2021 10:44:00 GMT -5
While most folks mulch around tomatoes and peppers, like me, not much mulching around potatoes opening the plants to soil borne disease. The nature of potatoes is that they tend to sprawl as the plants get larger besides having leaves touching soil there is a lack of air flow around the green parts. I have never even considered caging potatoes. By accident because of how I grow potatoes using straw in the trench, I also spread straw around the entire area on both sides of the growing area. What used to be a blight or other fungal disease magnet has kept the potato plants from turning brown until later in the season. Anectdotal or coincidence, maybe so, but that's my story and I'm sticking with it. Anything to keep soil splash off the leaves.
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Post by paquebot on Jul 19, 2021 11:25:24 GMT -5
I'm with Paul on mulching potatoes. Sitting here trying to remember how I've done it every year since 1990. Sometimes whole oak or maple leaves and sometimes white pine needles mixed in. Usually the leaves were shredded in later years but usually still some left when time to harvest. Maybe that's why I have never been concerned about foliar diseases in the potato patch. If it's there, not going to come in contact with the leaves.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by farmerjack41 on Jul 19, 2021 15:00:34 GMT -5
All of my rows are mulched with grass clippings, mostly at least six inches or more deep. Keep replacing it as it settles.
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Post by brownrexx on Jul 20, 2021 7:18:12 GMT -5
I know that commercial potato growers inject fumigants into the soil and that is one reason that I grow my own. They also spray the foliage and this is just too many chemicals for my liking. I did some Googling since I am not familiar with soil fumigants but it seems that they are for the soil borne diseases like verticillium and scab. There are also others that I am not familiar with but Late Blight spores can not survive freezing temperatures over the winter and are not usually present in the soil. Early blight can be soil borne but you can control that on the foliage with a spray of copper like we sometimes do with tomatoes. I do not like grass clippings for potatoes so much because in my experience they mat down and keep water from getting to the roots. I do like grass clippings for weed suppression and I use it for mulch between rows. I plant my seed potatoes in a shallow covering of soil and then mulch heavily with straw. I do not hill up the soil or I will have lots of scab on the tubers when I harvest. farmerjack41 , have you identified the blight that your plants are getting. Is it Late Blight?
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