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Potatoes Blight etc

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  • 17-01-2021 4:03am
    #1
    Slightly Kwackers
    Registered Users Posts: 624 ✭✭✭


    Hi,
    I am off to buy seed potatoes shortly.
    My main crop was hit severely by blight last year but I cut away the foliage and the tubers were fine.


    I thought queens as an early and was advised not to go blight resistant for a main crop.
    I am on the Kerry coast, temperatures are mild usually, the winds are horrendous though.
    I was told Kerr Pinks were a good main crop here, or Roosters.


    The local store has copper sulphate in stock and I was thinking of making my own blight spray. There are other things on the market, but I thought that copper sulphate is a fairly common "poison" and as food utensils have been made from copper in the past, it may be better for the planet and myself than something more exotic?
    Has anyone an opinion on the potatoes or the spray please?


    SK


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    #2
    The Continental Op
    Registered Users Posts: 6,338 ✭✭✭The Continental Op


    Some useful info on using copper https://eorganic.org/node/573

    Also https://giy.ie/archive/saving-the-spuds-means-a-compromise-on-chemicals.html

    Wake me up when it's all over.



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    #3
    SouthWesterly
    Registered Users Posts: 6,524 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    Slightly Kwackers wrote: »
    Hi,
    I am off to buy seed potatoes shortly.
    My main crop was hit severely by blight last year but I cut away the foliage and the tubers were fine.


    I thought queens as an early and was advised not to go blight resistant for a main crop.
    I am on the Kerry coast, temperatures are mild usually, the winds are horrendous though.
    I was told Kerr Pinks were a good main crop here, or Roosters.


    The local store has copper sulphate in stock and I was thinking of making my own blight spray. There are other things on the market, but I thought that copper sulphate is a fairly common "poison" and as food utensils have been made from copper in the past, it may be better for the planet and myself than something more exotic?
    Has anyone an opinion on the potatoes or the spray please?


    SK

    I'm on the kerry Coast as well. Got hit with blight in the leaves last year. Bought blight resistant for all my spuds this year


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    #4
    Hillybilly4
    Registered Users Posts: 609 ✭✭✭Hillybilly4


    The only maincrop potato I grow now is a blight resistant variety called Sarpo Mira. The one year I couldn't get hold of it I tried another variety, Setanta I think it was. Got blight. Personally would never spray.


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    #5
    Funsterdelux
    Registered Users Posts: 3,376 ✭✭✭Funsterdelux


    I grew setanta last year and they held out for a few weeks after my earlies were destroyed by blight.
    I dont spray either, I keep an eye and cut off stalks when I see blight appear.

    Prefer them to sarpos just taste wise.


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    #6
    Slightly Kwackers
    Registered Users Posts: 624 ✭✭✭Slightly Kwackers


    Thanks,

    I made up a mix of copper sulphate and washing soda with a little soap, I added the suggested quantities from an internet recipe and tweaked the pH to get it to 7.0 by fine tuning the washing soda addition.

    One thing that wasn't advised was the need to filter the solution! I used an old nylon shirt.

    I only sprayed my spuds and tomatoes twice all year and had a few very localised infections.

    I removed the leaves showing any brown blotches straight away and things seem fine.

    I still have most of the stuff I made up at the start of the year and used it to spray some tomatoes at the back of the house that I had forgotten about.

    Contrary to popular advice it seems to hold o/k


    I found the link finishing "./node/573" useful thanks


    The link was pretty thorough and a little off putting, but as a colleague said when we went for our "Asbestos Awareness" course, "It does not make the slightest difference, at our age and unless we have ingested fibres already, asbestosis stands no chance of killing us anyway"



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