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.