planted potatoes in garden this for first time in a long time. they are late russet type. grew nicely then I noticed not looking very healthy. trimmed back the awful looking leaves. but they still got worse. do I pull them up or will potatoes still grow below and be edible.
Potato blight? Were these grown from store purchased potatoes? If it's blight, you want to dispose of them off your property, in the garbage not compost pile. Another thought. Are the stems actually attached to the ground? I only ask because voles got to two of my potato plants, eating everything below ground. The tops were yellowing & limp. I have only grown potatoes a few years. Someone else on this site will be able to advise you better.
where are you located and when did you plant them ? have you fertilized regularly and kept the sprayed for potato bugs ect ? did you dig under one to see what the potatoes were doing ?
Potato blight are the brown spots on the leaf. The yellow leaves are when your potato plants get old and then die. If the leaves get blight, pull a plant to see. If the tubers have blight too, the skin will be patchy brown grey. You need to eat them straight away if the whole potato is not affected. Cut it in half and see. If the tubers are unaffected you can store them. Check regularly for any dodgy ones and remove or the others will start to rot too. Potatoes grow best in compost.
My daughter's potato bed is in a very large container, very crowded, the soil looks ? grungy, a different color than regular planting soil, sort of rusty looking. I think she will trash the entire bed, potatoes and all. What would you do? You would need a photo, right?
what kind of soil did she plant in ? why not just check the potatoes ? other than rot there is little that would make them inedible ! i assume the soil had not been treated with anything ?
back in june you posted about potato blossoms dropping ! at that point your potatoes were close to being ready to harvest ! now in july you are posting about the brown spots ! your potatoes should have already been harvested ! thats what happens when the spuds are ready to dig ! the plant turns brown and dies ! its normal ! have you dug them yet ? if not they will likely rot ! dig them and put them in the shade for acouple of hours then store them where its cool, dry and dark !
well,, when i found her old post from june i was pretty sure she didnt know that the life of the plant was done and they needed to be dug ! the tops dying is normal !
If your spuds have phytophthora you can better remove all the foliage and burn this. Here, when the spuds get this, we leave them in the ground until we are ready to harvest them. They will not get any larger, but they ought to be safe if the sickness has not gotten into the tubers. An other alternative is to simply harvest them now and store them dark and cool. Phytophthora is a nasty piece of work. My colleagues above have given some good advice. You have some good ideas here. Please let us know how it goes with your spuds.
I posted about the soil my daughter's potatoes were growing in. MY MISTAKE!. It's her tomato bed. Potato/tomato in raised beds side by side. She figured it out, the leaves she used as mulch were crushed fine and that was the brownish substance.. Thank you all for advice given.
Phytophthora is what caused the Irish potato famine, right? I think you told me that before SJ. That's what caused my ancestors to flee Ireland for Boston.
That is right, Cayu. It is a terrible thing for spuds as well as tomato's. So many gardeners here have lost their tom plants this year. All of them planted their toms outside.
