My rain gauge says almost 4 inches of rain in the past week! Wow!
After reading about Late Blight in the news letter from Piccadilly Farm (my post from yesterday), I took a close look this evening at my potato plants. They look great overall, but there are a few nasty leaf spots here and there. I suppose it could be late blight starting in my patch.
I’m planning to start my potato harvest this weekend. Most of my varieties have finished blooming and are fruiting already. (Love those cute little potato fruits! photo below) A good time to start digging early potatoes. Especially the Fingerlings (volunteers from last year in my path), Red Norlands, and Red Golds. I’ll leave the Russets and Green Mountains a while yet.
This is a POTATO fruit!
I also checked on my tomato plants today, which are also susceptible to late blight and other wet weather problems. They seem fine. No moldy spots. A few yellowing lower leaves that I removed. Lots of weeds I pulled and lots of sucker growth I removed. (Several of my Opalka plants seemed to be especially yellow on the lower leaves.) Overall OK. The plants are about 2-4 feet tall now. Flowers, but no signs of any fruit yet.
potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)
late blight (Phytophthora infestans)
11 Comments. Leave new
Too much water can be trouble for tomatoes.
My potatoes haven't shown any signs of blooming yet – well the ones that were planted properly. The ones I just left on top of an old planter are flowering.
I'm on blight watch here too. At the first sign I am going to cut all the foliage off my potatoes whether they are ready or not! I'll just leave them in the soil till I need them.
Ah, Kathy, the grass is always greener … we've had less than 2 inches of rain since January 1 – too bad we can't share! Yesterday started at 89 degrees and topped out at 107. My tomatoes are tired of all the heat but I'm still getting strawberries (they live under the lemon tree).
Happy Fourth!
– Daisy and Pixie in Arizona
I badly need to prune my tomatoes too. I wasn't going to this year but they are so thick I don't think I would find half the tomatoes. I am also experiencing poor growth on my paste tomatoes, I am growing jersey devils.
On the topic of potato fruits, Vegetable Heaven has sown seed from last years fruit and they look like they will produce tubers in the first year. Here are some links:
http://vegheaven.blogspot.com/2009/04/potatoes-from-true-seed-experiment.html
http://vegheaven.blogspot.com/2009/05/own-variety-spuds-and-toms-update.html
Great idea Dan. I think I'll collect a bunch of potato fruits for seeding next year. Probably easier to store than the tubers (since I'd eat them).
I am quite uncertain that next year will bring the perfect amount of rain for all our plants. hang in there.
I was in horror when I went outside for a garden check yesterday, something nasty has hit half od my potatoes too, BAD! I think blight or wilt maybe. I have been at the beach enjoying the sun and am now afraid it is too far gone, that will teach me to never ignore the garden for a week staright again!
Kelly that sounds terrible. But the beach sounds great!
It does look like your potatoes are starting to get blight. Better harvest soon…
If you want some of my early tomato seeds let me know. The taste was not the best, but you have the chance to impress everyone in your gardens by having the first tomato, maybe beating others by weeks.
Oo-er… the blight already? Don't usually see it here until late July at the earliest. Is this normal in your neck of the woods, or is it just an unlucky year for you?