[duhickey]

hi


here are some photos of ker pinks and golden wonders sown on the 12/04/2010 in drills
i used farmyard manure when sowing and put some chicken pellet manure at base of stalks about a month later. sprayed with ditane two weeks ago.some drills or parts of drills of stalks look yellow wondering what might be wrong

[michael brenock]

To me it looks like Manganese (not magnesium) deficiency likely in high lime conditions or seed borne virus. if all the crop is affected then the manganese feficiency is more likely cause or the the after effects of a residual weedkiller. If only a few or a small percentage of crop is affected then virus is more likely. Some of these viruses have a severe effect on the crop while more times it may not even be noticed.Manganese uptake is reduced by dry soil conditions.
michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired)

[michael brenock]

potato is spelt without an E as is tomato. sorry to pick that up
michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired)

[duhickey]

Sorry about the spelling and thanks for reply
Only parts of the crop is affected but it is in three different varities of potatoes all the seeds were certified maby that rules out virus no weedkiller or lime was sprayed or spread on this ground for a long long time I think the soil is a bit on the dry side alright but we have got some rain in the last few days so it might help how can manganese deficiency be sorted

Thanks again

[duhickey]

on the weedkiller thing if i used my sprayer for spraying weedkiller and washed it out very well would it be ok to use the sprayer for blight spraying

bye

[michael brenock]

ok to use sprayer once it has been washed out well. real danger is in hormonal type weedkillers or contact types. manganese deficiency can be cured by spraying on a weak solution of Potassium permanganate (condy's crystals). It is highly unlikely that there could be such variation of manganese availability in a small area of ground unless it was a made up soil with soil from different sources. The pictures look more like virus than anything else despite the source of seed.
michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired)

[duhickey]

Bad start to my veg. growing . would it be ok to sow potatoes in the same soil next year
Thanks again for help

[michael brenock]

no that would not be a good idea. next year plant the potatoes in a fresh patch of the garden and grow something else where the potatoes grew. this is the practice of rotation.
michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired)

[michael brenock]

this problem of the yellow leaves on potatoes is puzzling me. Even though you say the seed potatoes were certified it looks very like a virus in one of the pictures. if the high lime is interacting on the nutrient uptake then the symptoms you see on the stalks is manganese deficiency . Manganese is unavailable to the plant though there may be plenty manganese in the soil. With possible high levels of lime in the soil the potatoes will probably be affected by Common Scab. Wait till harvest time to confirm this or not.
michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired)

[duhickey]

Thinking back on the seed think I was short a few seed to finish off some drills so I took some out of a bag of eating potatoes maby that was my downfall this is the first year I planted potatoes in this patch do you still think it would be better to move to a new spot next year .
Will take a few photos of potatoes to see about the scab
Thanks again for all the time spent on problem

[mcgrueser]

Rotate every year no matter how well or bad the season goes for you!
If you plant the same things in the same place every year you run the risk of developing dieases and problems in the soil, which you avoid by rotating. If you don't rotate you can end up destroying your soil for up to a decade!

[duhickey]

Ok thanks for that advice

[duhickey]

dug up my ker pinks and golden wonders last week the yield was ok taste very good not too mutch scab but I had some queens that were badley affected by scab whatever the problem might be with them