Re: Potato Wilt! again

Hi yo, Katie--

I got a thoughtful range of possible diagnoses about my sad potato wilt, as
follows:


"Sounds to me like the soil is too rich in organic matter.  That
condition leads to all sorts of nasty poblems -- both pest and disease.
I always plant my spuds in the most barren part of the garden and never
use any compost or fertilizer.  I have an endemic late blight problem
but I always seem to get a good crop.  (The blight strikes after the
flowers fall.)"

"It seems a bit soon to use those leaves [which were gathered last fall.]. I
would rot them for at least
a year until they have crumbled down to a brown uniformity, otherwise
you get the grey-white growths which can't be good on the young plants.
I plant my taties direct into  a thin layer of fully rotted garden
compost and they do fine. Another suggestion, if your beds are too new
then you might be getting air pockets round the roots as it settles. Try
it for looseness, if too puffy firm it gently and see that it doesn't
dry out too far.

"I grew potatoes in the same spot, a south
facing slope, and rather than hilling with dirt, I filled the trench with
peat moss....I have not experienced potato wilt...perhaps the south
exposure, or the dryness of the peat for hilling?"

My own personal guess is that it's either over-watering (although the
potatoes are in a raised bed, they're mulched with tons of leaves that get
super-soggy and --- because they are so matted----take a long time to dry
out) or some kind of pH problem (I haven't tested for that) or BOTH,
possibly weakening the plants and leading to verticillium or fusarium wilt,
which I think are caused by a virus which attacks weakened plants.

In other words, I don't know.....!  But I'm going to quit watering them for
the time being.

Will let you all know if I get a clearer diagnosis---

Juli (Spud)anne
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