My Dad has been hoping to use me as a blight early warning station, assuming that I’d be hit before the spores were carried northward in the breeze, but as it turned out he was able to alert me first. The fungal foray started in Yorkshire.
To be on the safe side I’ve dug up most of my remaining rows of spuds and bagged them up in hessian sacks.
From front to back we have, King Edwards, Maris Peer, Kerrs Pink and Charlotte.
The King Edwards are terribly scabby so I might not plant them again next year, although I will do a soil test first to see if I need to increase the acidity levels in my trenches. The Charlottes were the most successful, blemish free and delicious but both of the others are tasty too.
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What great looking spuds… can’t wait for ours to finish up so we can start eating!
Eeeek! – last thing I want to see is blight on potatoes or tomatoes. I get jittery every time I walk past my outdoor tomatoes.
how long will the taters last in a hessian bag?
A good long time I should hope. At least until the New Year.
That’s a great haul you have there. If you have problems with scab you might look for a variety which is resistant – there are so many new varieties nowadays.
I worked on the same project but it seems that the harvest wasn’t really abundant as what you are getting here. Do you have any problems when it comes to irrigation? It seems that one of the factor causing my poor harvest was partly due to this factor. Hope you can enlighten me a little here.
My soil is fairly light and dries out quickly but we haven’t had any hosepipe bans so far this year so I’ve been able to water fairly liberally.
A couple of times a week I’ve been letting the hose run till it fills each trench. I’m sure that has helped. I didn’t water much to start off with and the earlies were like wizzened prunes.