A tale of woe.

The Potato Harvest

Since the inauguration of the veg patch I have planted potatoes and had a good return at harvest time.  This year ‘proper’ seed potatoes were purchased from a reputable garden centre and were planted in the correct season so I had high hopes.

Now potatoes love water but this season’s rainy spells have been too much, even for potatoes.  The tops of the plant die down when the crop is ready for lifting but the tops started to die down too early.  On close examination it looked like there was a problem and I thought they were suffering from blight – the sort that devastated the potato harvests in Ireland during the Great Famine in the 1840s.  

Looking to the internet for advice the recommendation was to cut off the foliage before the spores could get into the soil and then into the tubers.  The tops were removed and leaving the crop alone for three weeks (to allow the blight spores on the surface to die) the tubers were dug out. 

 








Oh dear – the quantity was fine but the quality was not good. The potatoes were not mushy like I expected but were covered with scab to varying degrees – perhaps it wasn’t blight after all. Back to the internet – the potatoes don’t look pretty but they are edible!