Can I store potatoes if the leaves had blight?

amroche

Hi just harvested loads of home guard , which look fine but the leaves had blight despite spraying and watching I just couldnt keep up with pulling the leaves off. Can I store the tubers which look fine, or is it inevitable they will rot over winter. Will I have to throw out whatever we cant eat now?

I have Maris Pipers still in the ground same question..dont want to harvest until I hear from some of you more expert spud growers. Finally I have Golden Wonders which look fine.

Big lesson learnt I'll never attempt the non resistant varieites again!!

Can any of you help me with my storage issue, hate the idea of throwing out spuds ?
A

The Garden Shop · Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 5:46 pm Post subject:

Hi amroache,
Any potatoes which are not affected by blight should store fine in the right conditions, but if in doubt throw it out. In the case of your other potato varieties, if there is any sign of blight cut back all the stalks and leave for a week or so before you dig them. best of luck.

amroche · Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:01 pm Post subject: Photo of suspect tubers

Thank you very much thats good news. I have since cut some and some look like this although a lot look healthy. Problem is its hard to know what they look like without cutting them in two. Do you think this one has blight?

A

The Garden Shop · Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 12:38 pm Post subject:

Hi amroche,
Yes definately it has. the brown/red patches are a give away. Without cutting all your potatoes in half to check for blight look out for dark patches that seem sunken on the skin any potatoes with this are probably affected.

michael brenock · Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 9:50 pm Post subject:

in my opinion this is not blight with the regular marks around the edge of the tuber. This is almost certainly a physiological upset, a shortage or over supply or interrupted availability of a major minor or trace element including MAGNESIUM MANGANESE, ZINC. If only a few tubers are affected then a more likely cause is is virus, but widespread occurrence would indicate soil problems and may have been induced by shortage or excess water. Internal rust spot I think was the name given to this. Would like to hear from others if they had any such problems.
michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired)