After all the hard work in the Spring sifting the peat and filling the spud bags it's really disappointing that my potatoes all seem to have suffered badly from blight. My white Winston variety was worst affected and I thought I wouldn't be able to salvage a single tuber.....so much so that I pulled up all the bags (about 20) after my holiday and shoved them to one side under a hedge in disgust. As I said a few days ago, it was my own fault as I should have sprayed them before I went on holiday.
But I emptied them out two nights ago and was quite surprised to be able to salvage a dozen or so spuds of showable size. The only problem might be that blight affected tubers don't keep as well as they would normally......fingers crossed they'll last a few weeks. However, they're perfectly fine for eating.
Last night I pulled up 20 or so bags of the variety Kestrel. Again, I managed to salvage 20 or so tubers. I have another 15 or so bags of Kestrel to harvest, 15 of Nadine, 15 of Maxine and 15 of Amour. .......so I may well be able to stage some spuds this year after all but they certainly aren't up to the standard of previous years.
I've asked for advice from the National Vegetable Society as to whether my peat needs to be sterilised in any way........does blight stay in the soil? I don't think it does but I'll let you know as soon as I find out. One thing I do know is that the haulms should NOT be composted. I have a separate bin full of them which I intend to add to my bonfire and burn.
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