![]() ![]() However, there are certain things that you can do to reduce the risk that it will become a major problem: 1) Grow Early Harvest Potatoesįirstly, you can consider growing only potatoes that will be harvested before it is likely that blight will become a problem.įirst early potatoes are harvested around July, and so will be out of the ground before the blight arrives in late summer. If blight is present in your area, then unfortunately there is not much you can do to entirely eliminate the risk that it will take hold in your potato crop. Tuber blight may not be immediately obvious when the crop is harvested, but the tubers that have been affected will rot quite quickly in storage. If they become affected, potato tubers will have a reddish-brown discolouration below the skin and will become rotten and soft. If nothing is done, the infection can spread from the leaves and stems to the potato tubers. These brown areas will speedily spread into a wet rot that kills the leaves, spreading to the stems and turning them brown too. Potato blight is usually first noticed as brown areas that appear on the foliage of potato (or tomato) plants. Identifying Potato Blight Tubers affected with late blight. When the fungus reaches the plants, it will infect them and spread – often very quickly – through the plant tissue. Wet summer raises risk of potato storage rots. The spores can linger for years in the soil, and since they thrive in damp and soggy conditions, they will tend to be more prevalent when there has been a wet summer. Potato blight is caused by a microorganism – a fungus called Phytophthora infestans. ![]() Though blight is a common problem, it rarely destroys whole harvests.Īnd even when the potato harvest does suffer, home growers usually have a range of other crops that may well have fared better in a bad year for potatoes. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from Īn over-reliance on the potato crop meant that populations were left vulnerable, and many died when late blight destroyed the majority of the harvest.įortunately, most gardeners and growers today don’t have all their eggs in one basket. It was implicated in the famines in Europe in the 1840s, in 1845 in Ireland, and the following year in the Highlands of Scotland. Throughout history, late blight has been responsible for a number of catastrophic crop losses. If symptoms resembling those of blight occur earlier in the year in the UK, it is usually a case of magnesium deficiency instead. It is also referred to as ‘late blight’ to distinguish it from ‘early blight’ which is common in the US and elsewhere, but uncommon in the UK. Potato blight is a fungal infection that can attack potato plants and other members of the same plant family, such as tomatoes. That said, it is important to recognise that, while it is nigh on impossible to get rid of, it is possible to identify and deal with it quickly, and to take steps to reduce the chances of potato blight taking hold. It can cause significant reductions in yields and may, in extreme cases, mean that you lose your potato crop altogether. Unfortunately, potato blight is a serious issue. Potato blight is an annoying problem and one that many UK gardeners will experience at one time or another. ![]()
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