HIGHER MORWELL GARDEN DIARY
26th June 2016
Work in the past week has been entirely in the polytunnel, which is at least dry but anything but cool. Maybe we should have looked more carefully at what was happening outside. Local knowledge is not to be easily dismissed! Our neighbour Martin who lives in Rock Cottage just up the road towards Tavistock told me weeks ago that you can’t grow potatoes outside successfully here, but we had to try it for ourselves.
Two days ago the potato bed looked highly promising, but in a very short time the Desiree plants which were the main crop have wilted with potato blight. The disease is spreading along the bed from the camera towards the crop of early Maris Peer plants which still look viable. We’ve cut down and burnt most of the leaves from the Desiree potatoes today as they are highly infectious.
To add to the misery for the potatoes we’ve gained an intruder overnight in the bed, the hole has been blocked up again and boarding put along the egde of the bed to discourage the rabbits. The mesh cover is to keep them off the radishes, and the potato plant in there has now succumbed completely to the blight so has been cut down. The tubers under the soil won’t grow any further if indeed there are any after the rabbit has dug through them.