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Post by troll on Sept 10, 2012 12:29:59 GMT 1
I've just dug up a row of cherry toms desiree spuds. A 6m row yielded enough for 3 meals! (and the ground, despite last night's rain was bone dry). I'm somewhat concerned that as the spuds are soooo tiny, and the soil sooo dry, I'm going to miss loads, and have volunteers poping up all through next year's crops. Am I right in thinking twould be a mistake to save any for seed this year? Usually I grow 3 varieties, replacing 2 with fresh seed, and saving 1
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2012 13:52:06 GMT 1
That's a very interesting question, troll, but I don't think I'll try and contribute an answer. Ali likes to give me a bit of info, wait till I comment, then gives me a bit more, to show how wrong I am!!! You may have the same modus operandi. I know that you wimmin on here like to hunt in packs....
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Post by troll on Sept 10, 2012 16:28:32 GMT 1
That's a very interesting question, troll, but I don't think I'll try and contribute an answer. Ali likes to give me a bit of info, wait till I comment, then gives me a bit more, to show how wrong I am!!! You may have the same modus operandi. I know that you wimmin on here like to hunt in packs.... I'm deeply hurt that you could think I'd lay a trap for you............... I genuinely wondered (having read some of your comments about the tatties themselves not being infected), whether cutting orf the blighted leaves was sufficient to protect the tubers. OK I'll give a bit more info I cut off the haulms, and left the spuds, which had been well earthed-up, undisturbed for um err about a few weeks.
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Post by Ali on Sept 10, 2012 17:19:18 GMT 1
Ali likes to give me a bit of info, wait till I comment, then gives me a bit more, to show how wrong I am!!! You're being a meanie Ann - I did apologise
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2012 19:59:38 GMT 1
You're always doing it, Ali! But there's no need to apologise! I find your girlie ways very endearing!
Troll, call me a sucker...
Blight spores attack the haulms. Like a systemic weedkiller, it's pumped to the tubers. The tubers are damaged internally. Rots attack the damage. Stink.
Cut off the haulms. Stop the pumping. But you don't know how much has already been pumped. You don't know how many tubers are already infected. Spores can be washed off cut-down haulms by the rain and into the soil, infecting tubers that way. So don't leave the haulms on the surface.
My crop of desiree had no visible signs of blight when I cut them down in June. They were lifted in August, cos I didn't have time in June. No sign of rot on tubers so far. When I've had signs of blight in the past, and cutdown, some tubers developed rot, some didn't. Depends on how early you catch it.
Warm and moist. Rots like. Summer soils are warm, and moist, enough. Autumn soils more so. The tubers themselves are moist. Dry them. Not just to toughen the skins. But rather until there's no 'give'. Hard. Summer air is a convenient way of drying them. Airy outbuilding is good. Noticed that rots develop fastest in Autumn, in store, than Winter. Warm temp bad, once dried.
Always used saved seed, hen's eggsize. They dry off easily. If they get through winter without any rot, and start to chit in Spring they gotta be good.
Got no evidence to suggest that blighted seed produces blighted plants the following season. It's more likely that blighted seed will not store long enough to be good by Spring, or they won't chit, or they shrivel up. So you don't plant any. So store'em and see!
Planning assumption: We'll get blight every year. It's in the soil and on diseased material. Waiting to propagate when conditions are right. And we seem to be getting warm/wet every year. So see growing spuds as an early season dash. And cut down early, with a sigh, knowing you won't get as big a crop as you'd like.
Anorak land revisited.
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Post by troll on Sept 10, 2012 20:17:06 GMT 1
Appologies to anyone reading who is sick of hearing about me getting my spuds in really early. I hate black plastic on the fields, but needs must. I usually warm the soil (south facing slope) under the dreaded stuff, and get Charlottes in early Feb. That way I 'm lifting them before the blight hits. It didn't work this year, cos the soil was so toasty warm every hungry rodent in Finistere came to feast and be cosy!!! I put in more, Amandine and Desiree and those purple/blue thingys after I'd lifted the plastic, but tooooo late the whole lot got blight and the leaves wilted while I watched. Now I have my ploytunnel I shall be sowing a few very early, and not doing the outside soil-warming exercise. The little furry things can freeze . Everything I've read about blight-resistant varieties suggests they are lacking in flavour, which really defeats the object of growing your own.!
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Post by <-Rinky-Dink-> on Sept 10, 2012 22:34:38 GMT 1
Mmmmmm.... we must have different soil down here (dept.36). My spuds went apsolutely mad, the stems grew so long that I had to snip them off because they had completely buried the onions. I planted Ratte potatoes and they did very well indeed. Pulled them a bit early, should have left them for a while longer and got more spuds. However those that I planted have kept us going for a couple of months now and I even gave loads away to my neighbours (they are always giving me plums, apples and grapes). Will definitely plant Rattes next year, and am considering putting in a winter crop while the soil is still warm.
Tomatoes are still going mad ... some of the cherry tom plants are taller than I am with loads of fruit on them still. Even the larger toms are doing well considering that the cherry toms are stopping a lot of light from getting to them.
Runner beans though are a complete disaster this year, have had about 8 means from them and that's all. However, they have started to flower again recently, so I am hoping that I will get a few more meals from them shortly.
Carrots were a disaster .... they all had at least three or more roots on them which were so long and spindly they they weren't worth bothering about. The onions which survived being buried by the potatoes did well and are lovely and big and full of flavour, but not many of them.
I put some cabages in about 4 weeds ago, they seem to be doing ok, but I have to keep washing off little tiny white flying insects off them.
We had no plums, no cherries, no apples and no pears this year. My peach tree, which has been in the garden for about 2 years looks as though it is dying and produced no fruit at all.
I planted about 10 strawberry plants this year, and only got about 3 strawberries at a time... so they were a disaster too
The radishes were very 'woody' and not worth eating.
The beetroots were ok though.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2012 7:35:37 GMT 1
I think you're right to get off the soil-warming route, troll. It's never made sense to me. An area, surrounded by cold earth, can be warmed by early-season sun? And the practice coincides with the slug a population explosion.....
Forking over is supposed to help warm-up in Spring, when air temps are higher than soil temps, but I no-dig and never had a problem with March planting, even in the swamp that is France....
Mystified by your various tales of 'bone dry'. You must be losing it faster than I do. Think that how you manage your soil water really influences your success...
Vis-a-vis volunteers, they'll emerge early next year, won't they? So you can dig'em out then, when you can see 'em? And plan to plant a later-season crop when it's cleared?
And RD, all-in-all you seem to have had an ok season. You're the only one who has....!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2012 8:44:58 GMT 1
...and another thing about the blight. If you accept that it works like a systemic weedkiller, then it's very easy to 'burn' the foliage completely before the weedkiller has had chance to be pumped to the roots. So when we apply too high a concentration of weedkiller it doesn't kill the plant, only the topgrowth. And the (perennial) plant comes back. So a very bad season for blight, perversely, means fewer infected tubers, and a mild attack of blight produces a slow, lingering death, and more infected tubers. This I have observed over the years. Some people would say that it's fanciful nonsense. They're wrong.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2012 20:57:50 GMT 1
I would like to report that I've finished eating the desiree pots whose haulms were completely destroyed by blight...
About 5% were rotten, and they soon showed themselves after lifting, so my theory about a heavy attack of blight to the haulms not leading to heavy infection of the tubers is borne out....
Meanwhile, other desirees whose haulms were chopped off before any sign of blight are all fine in store......
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