BLIGHT!!!!!!!!!

sponge_bob

just out in the garden and noticed that my maincrop kerrpinks have caught blight. i have about 100plants in total with 50 set about 2-3weeks ahead of the remaining 50, so my crop is at two different stages. the first lot seems to be dying back with most of the plants starting to wither and go yellow about 50% of these plants would seem to have some blackening of the leaves. but the second half is still very green and has some flowers on it with about 20% of this lot showing some black spots.

whats my next course of action?.
was hoping to leave them for another few weeks yet and leave the foliage die back alltogether.
i have just given them another shot of spray, whether or not it will do any good at this stage i don't know.
i think it is in the early stages as none of the plants seem wicked bad with it yet, or is all the damage done underground first before it starts showing above ground. i didn't dig any yet to check as iam unsure what to do.

Mothman

The damage shows above ground first and while it can travel down the stem, the main route of infection for the tubers is via rain washing the spores down from the leaves, in particular heavy rain. pinks are very susceptible to tuber blight and I'd consider removing the tops from the earlier lot before the next heavy rain...which could be tomorrows showers!

The 2nd lot probably still have plenty of growth left and may be best left to bulk up more and seeing how it goes. Any tops removed are probably best buried or burned and they will still be a source of infection and if infected leaves can be removed then this may help, but note that in the act of doing this you may inadvertently spread the spores to clean foliage.

The Garden Shop

if the plants are dying back then there ability to take in the blight is limited.

It is the plants that are still green are really in danger.
What I normally do is go along and pull off all the leafs that have blightly marks on them (I do the same with my tomatoes).
I am not sure how practical this will be if you have a large number of stalks.
I would still spray again with Diathane to prevent blight. It is clearly better to do this before you get blight but you need to try something or you may loose a huge part of your crop.

sponge_bob

i have cut back all the dying foliage down to ground level, any green plants that looked like they had blight i have been removing the infected leaves. i also sprayed them aswell with an extra strong mixture of stuff. i will probably dig all the ones that i cut the foliage back on this evening when i get home