A few people have asked me lately what to do to protect their spuds when there’s a blight warning in effect, so here’s my esteemed advice: set everything on fire and run away screaming.
However, if you are one of the very zen people who has decided not to completely overreact (ie, me) and simply hope for the best, I figured I would tell you a bit about blight and how to cope if your spuds get the potato equivalent of Ebola.
First things first, what the hell is blight?
Blight caused the worst famine in Europe when it destroyed all of our potato crops here in Ireland between 1845-1852.I’ve written at length about the Famine on the blog before so I won’t go into it here, but blight is a problem that still plagues us here in Ireland, mostly because of our weather.
Potato blight is caused by an airborne fungus called Phytophthora Infestans. Catchy name right? It spreads rapidly through the air during periods of warm, humid weather. Wind carries the fungal spores from plant to plant and rain can soak the spores into your soil and cause them to spread.
So, while the country basks in glorious summer heat, food growers are often having panic attacks because heat, rain and sunshine combine to make peak blight weather.
Does it just affect potatoes?
Nope. Yay. Phytophthora infestans can infect any plants from the solanaceae family (which is also known as the nightshade family). So blight can also infect tomatoes, aubergines and peppers too.
Fanf**kingtastic.
And if you’re for some mad reason growing tobacco, it’ll affect that too.
Also, call me.
What are the symptoms?
Right, here’s how to tell if your spuds have blight. It’s really important to keep a close eye on them over the summer months for these tell-tale signs.
Leaves: The leaves on your plants will begin to develop brown patches. Kind of like freckles, which might be only gorgeous on people like myself, but spell disaster for your spuds. The brown patches will also get yellow patches spreading outwards.
Tubers: The potato tubers will develop really dark patches within a few days and the inside of your potato will turn into a (no better way to say this) disgusting slimy blob of rotting flesh. Gorgeous. They will be the most disgusting thing you have ever smelled in your life. My advice: wear a gas mask.
Can you prevent it?
In a nutshell, no. Sorry.
But there are some things you can do to lessen your chances of getting blight. You can of course, spray your crops with a blight preventative treatment, but you all know how I feel about using chemicals in the garden.
So no, I do not spray my spuds. Which is probably why I always bloody get blight. I’m cursed.
Otherwise, and I’d recommend this, you can plant a variety of potato that has a high blight resistance. There are loads of varieties of spuds that have blight resistance and while it will not prevent blight, planting one of the blight -resistant varieties will at least stave off the blight for longer (is the word blight beginning to lose all meaning for you yet?). Sarpo Mira and Coleen are both really tasty spuds with high blight resistance so they’re worth trying.
But what if it’s too late for all that? What do I do if my spuds do get blight?
As I said, just set them alight and run.
Or, if you’re a more balanced human being than myself and see signs of blight on your leaves, you can cut down the foliage of your spuds to the ground. This will prevent the blight from travelling to the tubers. Just make sure to get rid of the leaves and whatever you do, don’t put them in your compost because then you’ll just have compost that is full of blight and you’ll get it again next year.
Leave the tubers in the ground for about two or three weeks, then you can lift them. They’ll be tiny spuds but at least they’ll be spuds and not just mushy piles of slime.
If you do keep getting blight, it helps to take a break from growing potatoes. The recommended gap is three years but, well, eff that noise. Growing potatoes is just too much fun to take that long of a break from.
You could try growing them in grow bags instead if you don’t want to take a break, sometimes simply moving the problem can help.
Sadly, this summer, it seems like we’re all in trouble either way though.
So, just keep an eye on your children potatoes and hope for the best.
And there’s always the burn it all to the ground option if everything else fails. Sorted.