Potato Scab?

[linda w]

I haven't had a garden in years...and got back into it. I planted Yukon Gold potatoes this year. The plants are beautiful. We had a lot of rain this summer. Today we ate our first potatoes. They had a scabby type of peel. Little circular raised brown areas. I did some checking and the only notes I found mentioned scab with corky like raised lesions or lenticels with corky lesions. BUT...are the potatoes safe to eat? Are there any potato smarties out there who can help me

[MaineFarmMom]

It's alright to eat the potatoes. Scab won't hurt you. You shouldn't save any for seed potato and should find a new spot to plant for next year.

[Barb]

Try some resistant varieties next year. We put way too much horse manure on the garden one year and ended up with scab.

[linda w]

Thank you for your reply. We have a dairy farm and I thought I was doing the garden some good by using old manure. I must have over done it

[FarmerJeff]

I'll second the notion that pH is one of the biggest issues with scab. Some potatoes prefer soil as acidic as 4.5! That's like vinegar. Tomatoes in comparison are happy in the 6 to 6.5 range! And they are thought of as "acid-loving".

[moonwolf]

One thing to watch for next year is in how you amend to the soil. Adding wood ashes, for example, can cause scab by helping to make the soil more alkaline as mentioned above. Potatoes will do okay in neutral to slightly acid soil, and usually you don't need to amend soils of that type for potatoes. Adding compost or some rotted manure won't hurt, and avoid too much of the liming agents or high pH fertilizers.

[fin29]

I have found that "cleaning" the soil with a soybean cover crop the year before planting potatoes removes the scab from our typically scabby Maine soil. I plant it as a cover crop between my rows of corn, which potatoes follow in our rotation. We plant it when the corn's about thigh high.

Here's a link: http://www.uvm.edu/extension/publica...isease/gd7.htm