Blight smite

5 August 2007

The two potato haulms over by the fence had gone all deaded and smelled a bit funny a while ago, but I assumed that they were just being cantankerous and left them to it. Until today I realised that their cantankerous nature had suddenly spread to pretty much the rest of the row and all the leaves and stalks had patches of brown all over them. Bunch of mothers. So I’ve cut the haulms down and thrown them away (read: left them in the wheelbarrow for someone else to deal with). They were terrible haulms anyway, ever so leggy. No idea what sort of a crop I’ll get, but I’ve read that if the spuds are earthed up well, then it may be that the blight spores don’t reach them. So, as advised, I’ll be leaving them in the ground for at least two weeks, letting the potatoes skins thicken and then we’ll see what we shall see.

Elsewhere on the patch, the pumpkins and sweetcorn continue to thrive. This morning I rigged up a loop of string so that one pumpkin could make its way up onto the roof of Juniper Lodge. Just for the amusement factor really. That would be pumpkin 3D, in case you were wondering. I’ve labelled all my vines and gourds now. The tangled mess needing some figuring out and I kept finding that the vine I was trying to identify didn’t actually belong to the nearest plant, but rather to the one on the other side of the patch. If you see a pumpkin vine coming through your window one day, apologies, it’s probably mine.