That fine July weather seems to have deserted us now as the last couple of days have been cooler especially Wednesday.
I thought I'd lift a few more of our blight hit potatoes which lost their haulms a few weeks ago now.
This is how they looked before I started digging them up. The centre row of Nicola seem to have withstood the blight better than the Winston to the right and Rocket and Casablanca to the left. The ground was very dry and hard and digging out the potatoes was tough going.
I'm glad I don't need to convert this stuff into a fine tilth for planting. It resembles concrete more than it does soil. I'm a little surprised anything could grow in it at all.
I was pleased with the Nicola potatoes I managed to extract from the hard ground. The crop was heavier than either the Casablanca or Rocket growing alongside and mercifully all the potatoes were free of slug damage.
However even though the potato tops had stood up to the blight better than some varieties I think some of the tubers might have been affected.
I think the damage to this potato is the result of blight. I will need to keep a close watch on stored tubers.
The first three varieties have now been lifted from this bed and the crops are low but I'm pleased to have any potatoes at all after blight attacking the crop in June.
The weights of the first three rows of potatoes lifted are shown below.
The weights of the first three rows of potatoes lifted are shown below.
I think I'm going to lift Rocket and Casablanca grown under weed control fabric next and see how they have fared.
Posts
They look like they're mostly in good condition. No doubt the ground will improve once there's some rain. Mine's a bit like concrete as well at the moment.
ReplyDeleteThere's more - look out for tomorrows post!
DeleteThe potatoes look good to me! even though some is damaged! Hope you get handful of potatoes!
ReplyDelete