Potato Blight

[bowdonkey]

I was reading in William Weaver's book that the Irish potato famine happened in part due to all the potatoes coming from 2 strains. Can a gardener in today's world plant different varieties to overcome this. If so, what varieties.

[unregistered168043]

I have battled this problem for years and I have found several varieties that are good at resisting blight, but none that are 'blight proof'. Mainly the Kennebec, and Elba varieties are known to resist blight and I have had good success with both. In the UK, where they have dealt with this problem longer, they have many more strongly blight resistant varieties but you cannot get them here. I have contacted seed sellers in the UK and they cannot send those varieties here because of the law.

I'm not sure why they don't allow it, but it drives me crazy. Cornell has been working on a variety of potato called "defense" for years but it isn't available to the public ( probably never will be IMO ). I don't know why we have to have Cornell study and develop a potato to resist blight when the UK has already done it a long time ago with many varieties, not just one. My guess is that there is a lot more money in throwing tax dollars into Cornell that to just adopt UK potatoes.

[bowdonkey]

This is a little off topic but in the UK they also use a nematode to control slugs and snails. Thanks for your response DT, I didn't know that about Kennebecs, they do get scab though.

[geo in mi]

There is some belief among hardline evolutionists that genetic diversity could have been greater if more than one variety was developed from the Andean potato sources, but the fact is that it was simply too early in the worldwide use of potatoes--and in any scientific theorizing--to make any difference. And, even today, with the plethora of potato varieties at hand, the late blight still attacks all of them equally. So the answer to your questions would be: maybe, and no.

Heres a pretty good botany lecture from the U of Hawaii that may help explain the Irish potato famine in many oif its ramifications...... http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty...135/lect06.htm

geo

[bowdonkey]

Thanks geo, I read the lecture and checked out the pictures of the famine. I love old paintings, I'm always amazed how some copies survive time.

[Joel_BC]

I'm in southeastern British Columbia, Canada - in a mountain valley more or less above the Washington city of Spokane. Different climate from Spokane though - we tend toward dampishness (with a snowy winter), and Spokane toward dry. Anyhow, in the last two years, blight has affected many gardens and farms here - blight of both potatoes & tomatoes. It wiped some organic potato growers out up here, in 2011.

These are some blight-resistant varieties names I've collected from UK sources, though I'm uncertain yet whether any of them (or how many of them) I can obtain here in Canada:

Ambo - baking, etc
Armour - salad, boiling, baking
Barna - boiling. mashing
Cara - baking, etc
Kestrel (early) - boiling, baking "waxy type"
Markies - baking, etc
Nadine (early) - boiling, baking "waxy type"
Orla - baking, etc
Pentland Dell - baking, etc
Pentland Squire - baking, etc
Record - baking, etc "dry & mealy"
Romano - salad, boiling, baking (semi-waxy)
Sante - baking, etc
Sarpo Mira - "dry & mealy"
Setanta - baking, etc.
Toluca - baking, etc
Valor - baking, etc

Two varieties that are resistant that I do know we can get are Sieglinde, and Kennebek.

Comment on any of the ones I've named that people reading this thread have found to be available in North America might be helpful to me.

[geo in mi]

I wouldn't bank on Kennebec as having that much resistance......and the others may not be available in North America for some time........and whether taste and other attributes make them popular enough to create a market for seed potatoes is unknown. You always have to keep in mind that commercial produuction drives the seed market. Will you have fries with your order????

But, help is on the way! (This should be controversial. It was just a matter of time.)


http://news.agropages.com/News/NewsDetail---4125.htm

http://www.europabio.org/agricultura...ial-successful

Cheers.

geo

[Paquebot]

Five of those European varieties mentioned are maintained by the curator of the SSE potato germplasm. They are Pentland Dell, Pentland Squire, Record, Romano, and Sarpo Mira. They are grown out annually in Maine.

Martin

[bowdonkey]

Martin, you still using your permanent patch? If blight does develope in it, must the patch be abandoned for awhile?

[Paquebot]

Late blight is an obligate organism. That is, it can only transfer from one living entity to another living entity. It can not live in the soil or any dead plants. Rotation doesn't work when a blight starts in Texas or Oklahoma and ends up in Wisconsin such as happened several years ago.

Martin

[bowdonkey]

Thank you, that is good news. I can't wait for next year to try some more experiments. It's to bad the growing season is so short here. So much to learn, so little time.

[don the farmer]

potato is my main crop, I use a gerenic form of admire, it protects against colorado potato bugs and several forms of potato blight. I planted 5,000 pounds of kennebec potatoes last year and I harvested 35,000 pounds with no problems.

[don the farmer]

here is a recipe to keep the blight off of tomatoes. 2 gallons water, 2 tablespoons dial liguid soap, 2tablespoons miracle grow, 2 tablespoons garlic extract, 2 tablespoons epsom salts, 5 tablespoons isopropyl alcohol. Mix well in morning let stand all day, run through regular garden sprayer.

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by don the farmer

potato is my main crop, I use a gerenic form of admire, it protects against colorado potato bugs and several forms of potato blight. I planted 5,000 pounds of kennebec potatoes last year and I harvested 35,000 pounds with no problems.

How does nicotine protect against blight?

geo

[don the farmer]

I have no idea but last year in my area a lot of people lost there entire potato,and tomato crop, and the only thing I did diferant was use nuprin a generic form of admire and mine was not bothered.

[InvalidID]

You could save seeds (not seed potatoes) from year to year and try and grow your own blight resistant variety maybe?

[Paquebot]

Admire would have no affect against any form of blight. It's strictly for insect control. And Nuprin is ibuprofen, a pain killer.

Martin

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by InvalidID

You could save seeds (not seed potatoes) from year to year and try and grow your own blight resistant variety maybe?

Doubtful. As Martin says, late blight blows in from other areas. Some years you get it, some years you don't. To "select" or grow resistance, a plant would have to be exposed to blight each crop year and not get it, in other words, be the last plant standing. Even then, the blight will be living on the skin of that one during the winter storage period, and would reinfect the next year's entire crop--provided it also did not turn to mush and die in storage.

That is why I am sort of skeptical of the claims that Kennebec is resistant. That may be an anectdotal observation, a "folk claim" until proven out by lab or field research.

Besides, commercial interests drive research and methods for the worldwide, huge, potato crop food system. Those commercial interests have deemed that very close monitoring and then preventive spraying with chemicals is goodenough for now, along with the very rigid certified seed programs for a lot of the other potato diseases and problems. And, we are more likely to see GMO spuds in the future which will eliminate late blight by creating internal resistance genetically.........See the links to that subject in an earlier posting

(Oops, didn't see the "seeds" statement. No, seeds don't return plants that are "true" to the original parent, so you could possibly lose the taste, cooking qualities, etc of it and have to start over again, and again, and again.....)

geo

geo

[FrogTacos]

This past growing season was my very first attempt at a garden. We planted one long row of potatoes with 3 different kinds: Reds at one end, Yukons in the middle, and Russets at the other end. The Reds and Russets blighted, the Yukons right smack in the middle did not - in fact they were simply gorgeous.

Don't know if that helps you any, but those were my results.

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by FrogTacos

This past growing season was my very first attempt at a garden. We planted one long row of potatoes with 3 different kinds: Reds at one end, Yukons in the middle, and Russets at the other end. The Reds and Russets blighted, the Yukons right smack in the middle did not - in fact they were simply gorgeous.

Don't know if that helps you any, but those were my results.

Here is a pictorial that may help you identify what you had, that you labeled as 'blighted' http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.corne...ion.htm#Click4

In fact, that sheet is found on this larger site that will help identify most of the potato diseases and wilts that may have affected yours... http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.corne...otato_List.htm

Lots to look at. Reason for showing you this: to let you see if you should take precautionary measures like rotating your potatoes to a new location next season--always a good idea anyway, but absolutely a good idea to learn what condition your potatoes had, rather than assuming "blight"

Hope this may help,

geo