Half our marris peer crop of potatoes on our garden veg plot have blight. We have never had blight on potatoes before it is usually just tomatoes in late summer that get it.
I googled it and it is caused by wet and warm weather which is what we have been having. Luckily the same crop at the allotment are not effected. It is so open and often windy up there that the ground drys out whereas here everything is now water logged.
When I googled it it said that if you remove the yellowed foliage you can dig the potatoes up and they will be fine to eat but if you leave it the potatoes will go black. I dug up the new potatoes and there was enough for one meal.
New potatoes
It’s such a shame because they look as if they would have been a good crop. They were really easy to scrape though and were delicious with butter. We had them with salmon and salad.
I have a feeling the other half of our marris peer may go the same way. The red fir apple potatoes haven’t been effected though. At least we will still have potatoes from the allotment.
Yesterday there were three little gem lettuces ready for picking at the allotment. My husband picked them and took one each round to the other two couples we share with. It was great to be able to have one each.
It was so tasty that we ate the leaves whole with our fingers just sprinkled with salt. We had scampi and chips and had lettuce leaves instead of peas. No need for dressing or mayo as they were lovely with just a sprinkle of salt.
There are enough cabbages and broad beans to have with our Sunday roast this weekend. It is great to be getting some produce.
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This is the first year ever that my potatoes haven’t had blight – I think because it was so cold. When mine get it I just take the tops off and leave the potatoes in the ground until I want them.
Do the potatoes carry on growing without the tops?
No I don’t think so – they just seem to keep better in the soul than anywhere else.
Ahh, I see. I didn’t think they could grow without their tops. I leave the fully grown potatoes in the soil and dig them up as I need them but there are so few of these potatoes and they are so small that I may as well dig them up and eat them. They are just like new potatoes.
Out tomatoes have blight too and have stopped growing. I may as well throw them away but it’s so disappointing that they never got going.
So nice to be picking your crop.
It is nice. The blight on the potatoes carried on so that we only have a quarter that haven’t got it now (marris peer, the pink fir apples are fine). I dug up another portion of new potatoes. Richard went to the allotment and we now have a cabbage and broad beans for the weekend and another lettuce and radishes and also a few strawberries.
They do look good.
The whole row of maris peer got blight, it worked it’s way along the row. I have now dug them all up and there were enough for four meals. They made lovely new potatoes and scraped really easily. The row of red fir apple potatoes look fine and there are plenty of potatoes at the allotment so not to worry. We enjoyed the potatoes and are getting broad beans and lettuce and radish from the allotment so are having lots of salads.