Blight

Sunday 29th July 2012
A heart-warming sunrise

Three nights ago I did the daily trip in the evening gloom to lock away the chickens and I noticed that our two guineafowl were not up on their normal fence. I could just make out the distinctive spotty feathers of one of them in the roost house with Cocky and his harem. This I found moderately insulting given the fun and games we used to have persuading them to actually go in there at night!
This has been repeated for the last two nights and Lady Guinea has only been seen briefly twice. Other than that, she has gone AWOL.
I am hoping she is sitting on eggs somewhere, but I don't want to count my chickens yet ... that may not be quite the right phrase to use.

Burning diseased potato haulms
and ragwort.
Not an easy task in damp conditions.

Blight!

While I've been preoccupied with my polytunnel, a most unwelcome, yet inevitable stranger has crept onto the farm and destroyed my potato crops. Invisible, wafting through the air, thriving in warm, damp conditions, it strikes with alarming speed.


Having never actually seen blight before (only pictures in books and on the internet) I was not definite exactly what to look for, since at this time the early potatoes are dying down anyway. But I had my strong suspicions, especially when the maincrops down in the spare veg patch started to develop dark blotches on the leaves.

I knew it was coming and hoped it wouldn't strike my patch, but I couldn't have done anything to stop it anyway. Standard procedure is to spray with Bordeaux Mix, but to do that you need dry weather. By the time that came it was too late.

What has really surprised me, though, is the speed and deadliness of its strike. Okay, so I was busy with other things, but it has already virtually wiped out all of the foliage and made its way down the plant into some of the tubers. All I can do now is to pull all the stems and leaves and burn them, then wait two weeks before digging up the crop for storage. Its then that I know whether I've got any spuds left and whether they had time to grow properly.

As for the Earlies, I'll use them as quickly as I can. Even with a few losses it's still been a good crop. What a shame they are more difficult to store, but I have plans for a potato cookery day so a good proportion of them can make their way into the freezer in one form or another.

I should also learn which claims of blight resistance are the most valid.


At the moment, it seems as if the Edgecote Purples have fared best out of the Earlies. The Sarpo Mira have certainly lived up to their reputation, their lush green leaves standing out like a sore thumb amongst the withered, brown haulms of all the other varieties. It is possible that some varieties will have resisted enough for the tubers to remain largely unaffected. Let's hope so.

The fire produced plenty of smoke...

But I don't think
all this was down to me!

And before you think it, please don't leave any comments reminding me that blight can be even more lethal to tomatoes. I watch with crossed fingers.
The loss of many of my potatoes I can swallow. We had far too many anyway, and even if  the worst comes to the worst it won't cost us a fortune to buy them locally, even if our rather gourmet selection of varieties will be limited. But the tomatoes are a different story. Even if we don't sell any, they are a crop which simply cannot be replaced from the shops and I'll find it very difficult to pay through the nose for any that actually have any significant flavour.