How to save potatoes from late blight: oversight can leave you without a crop

Late blight can not only dramatically reduce fertility, but also completely destroy the potato crop. This disease can be noticed immediately: brown spots appear on the lower leaves, gradually spreading to the upper leaves, stems, and tubers. The potatoes become bluish-gray, slippery, and soft.

Excessive humidity is the main factor in the development of late blight. OBOZ.UA tells you how you can save the harvest.

Sick tubers

The main source of late blight infection is diseased tubers, so to protect the crop, you need to carefully reject planting material affected by the fungus. You should not just put the damaged tubers in a box, but completely eliminate them – bury them in the ground or even burn them. Scientists have shown that spores can be carried by the wind over a distance of more than 5 km.

Distribution of potato varieties

You need to properly distribute potato varieties. For example, late-ripening varieties should not be planted together with early or mid-ripening varieties – the latter are affected by late blight earlier. If possible, it is better to move potatoes to a new location every year.

Experts say that the following potato varieties have the highest level of resistance to late blight: Zagrava, Vodograi, Svitanok Kyivskyi, Olvia, Obriy.

Processing before planting

Gardeners often treat tubers with special preparations before planting. Agriculturalists recommend preventive treatment one to two days before planting with the biological product Agate-25K (3 g per 250 ml of water) or Immunocytophyte (0.4 grams per 150 milliliters). The solution will be enough to treat 20 kg of planted potatoes against late blight.

Processing potatoes at the growth stage

When choosing a preparation for treating potatoes against late blight at the growth stage, it is imperative to take into account the vegetation process. When the first leaves appear, the potatoes should be treated twice, keeping an interval of 1.5 weeks. Fungicidal preparations against late blight will be useful: arcedil (50 g per 10 liters of water), rhidomil MC (25 g per 10 liters) and oxyhom (20 g per 10 liters).

After flowering, contact preparations are needed: dithane M-45 (20 g per 10 liters of water), copper chloride (40 g per 10 liters), cuproxate (25 g per 10 liters). You can carry out 3-4 treatments per season with an interval of one week.

Subscribe to the OBOZ.UA channels in Telegram and Viber to keep up with the latest events.