The AllBlue and the Yellow finn now have severe wilting going on. The limp stems are rotted off below ground. About half the stems from Yellow Finn are affected, and I’m afraid all of the plants in the AllBlue are goners. These planters are separated but in the same area. They may have more water than necessary lately, but I would consider the drainage excellent- there is a lot of organic material- mulch, peat moss, etc- in the soil, and the planters are standing on bricks above an air gap, and 2 × 6 frames are not sealed and will allow water to leak out the sides if necessary, which has not happened.
Unaffected plants in the bin are vigorous, green, and healthy looking, but die in a few days when they start to wilt.
I have no idea what to do, beyond backing off on the watering. If the plants all die off above ground, I will decant all the soil and see if there are tubers. Then it’s up to me to find out what happened, and try to correct it.
Potatoes planted in hanging sandbags do not seem to be affected yet. Maybe this is a drainage problem after all- I will see whether the cracks between the flooring slats have swollen shut, when I empty the planters later.
1. a dead yellow finn stalk among healthy stems
2. base of stem- slimy end rotted through
3. nibbler- innocent bystander?
4. Allblue carnage
5 healthy yellow finn flowering
This entry is about
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stem rot attack |
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Day 50
Solanum tuberosum
Under Attack
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Day 50
Solanum tuberosum
Under Attack
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? This question is currently listed as unanswered. If you think you may be able to help with this question, leave halhurst a possible answer below.
Previous Journals
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northgate garlic Moved
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gooseneck squash Harvesting, Runner Bean 'Scarlet Runner Bean' Harvesting, Bush beans Harvesting,...
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Yellow Finn Potting Up, AllBlue Potting Up, All Red potato Potting Up, and top of wall garden
Later Journals
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critters garden
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Pepper, Sweet Chinese Giant Sprouting, Tomato 'Black Cherry' Setting Fruit, and Bean, yardlong po...
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Tomato 'Black Cherry' Setting Fruit and Four Barrel Fisherator garden
Comments
mcav0y wrote:
How long has it been since the potatoes flowered? There is a chance that this could be the potatoes natural process. All blue and yellow fin are early season potatoes, a few weeks after flowering, they flop over and turn brown. There is a chance that they just flopped over before turning brown. Perhaps? Hopefully? I would stop watering as well.
Posted on 03 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
halhurst wrote:
1. You say that AllBlue and Yellow Finn are early season spuds, but the folks I bought them from said late season. I was careful to buy late season spuds in light of what I read about making bins work. So there’s a discrepancy there in our information.
2. None of the plants in the AllBlue bin ever flowered. The ones that died in the Yellow Finn planter are not individuals that ever flowered The stalk that did flower, only opened up its first blooms in the last day or so, and looked healthy this morning. The plant that flowered the past two weeks and now has fruits, a different strain, is still fresh and healthy looking in its sandbag 5 feet away.
3. They are not turning brown, they have lengths of buried stem turning to slime, which effectively heads the upper foliage, which wilts as though you snipped them off.
These bins were both topped off with soil on Saturday. Although this might have been a stressor, I topped them off the week before as well. Before that I noticed that the AllBlues were not growing as fast as Yellow Finn, which has shown a lot of vigor.
The AllBlue bin was the first to show damage- at first I thought a neighborhood cat got in somehow and broke some stems trying to get out. I also considered that snails or slugs might have gotten in there but I have not attracted any with beer traps. I have seen a few holes here and there- more in the AllBlue- but I’m not convinced that anything just ate through the stem- the ends are too slimy.
I am feeling AllBlue when I think of the work I did getting this far. Even more blue if I can’t learn anything from this.
Posted on 03 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
hotwired wrote:
You might have Bacterial Soft Rot or Blackleg.
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Symptoms:
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Blackleg — leaves curl up; foliage gradually yellows and dies early. At the stem base, mushy light brown to inky black lesions develop. Aerial tubers also may form on stems. Tuber rot usually begins at the stem end and results in a black, slimy rot.
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Aerial stem soft rot — symptoms are in the upper canopy. Lesions range from light brown to colorless. Stems still get very mushy and hollow and may be filled with mucilaginous slime. Often this disease is a secondary infection associated with stem infections by late blight.
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Soft rot of tubers — on tubers, lesions can be as small as a single eye or involve the entire tuber. The rot is extremely soft and colorless. Although rot of the soft-rot bacterium is relatively odor free, secondary organisms usually cause a foul smell.
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http://ipmnet.org/plant-disease/disease.cfm?RecordID=882
Posted on 03 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
halhurst wrote:
Your link is showing me some things that might match what I’m seeing, except that it’s not that hot and humid here. They do not make any suggestions for how to control an outbreak, however, except maybe using bleach on potatoes that are already harvested to prevent spoilage. It seems I may have to sterilize the soil once it’s dug up.
Posted on 03 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
hotwired wrote:
There is no cure for this kind of problem. The only thing you can do is minimize the havoc it will have on your other plants. Blackleg and Bacterial Soft Rot are extremely contagious, affecting cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, rutabaga, beets, and turnips. I would write off potato farming for this year, and get them far away from any brassicas. I just checked your plantings, and you aren’t growing much that is at risk. You mentioned sterilizing the soil. I would dispose of it, because it will live for 3-4 years in the soil.
Posted on 03 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
halhurst wrote:
Grrr. So how about those butternuts?
Posted on 04 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
mcav0y wrote:
Sorry, halhurst, I was incorrect, they are late season. I was just hoping for the best for you. Good luck!
Posted on 04 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
hotwired wrote:
Looks like you’re squash are safe from blackleg, but not from bacterial soft rot. Really not sure which you have.
Black rot, dry rot, and “bacterial soft rot” are the principal causes of spoilage in stored winter squash.
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-24-c.html
Posted on 04 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
halhurst wrote:
@ McA: thanks for your good wishes.
@hot: Thanks for your research.
It’s interesting to see my psyche at work on this relatively trivial tragedy.
I’m running through the grieving process: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Right now I’m in depression. I can see the stages as I look back. By Saturday I will be in acceptance, and ready to make some rational decisions.
Posted on 04 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
hotwired wrote:
Sorry there wasn’t better news for you……. This can happened because of purchased compost. That’s why I’m a little nervous about buying it from the local farm stores. You never know what kinds of infected plants got thrown in there to decompose, unless you did it yourself.
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I had planned on planting potatoes this year. I got my plot tilled, and was ready to plant, when I asked for advice from a neighbor who raises a large field of potatoes, or did raise them until last year. He was hit with something similar last year. That’s what rang the bell to look at Blackleg. He had to saturate the field with a strong chlorine solution last fall, and has to grow other crops in that soil for the next three years. That convinced me that this might be a bad idea for this area, at least for now. That’s why my Backyard Potato Garden suddenly disappeared from my Gardens. I wasn’t prepared to jeopardize my harvests of important crops that I preserve for a long winter.
Posted on 04 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
halhurst wrote:
tell me about the chlorine- sodium hypochlorite I assume. He has planted other things in this treated soil? So the treatment did not make the soil unusable. I might have mentioned that every bit of soil I use comes and goes across my living room carpet. So I do not like to move massive amounts if I can possibly find an alternative, like treating it and adding back some soil bacteria. Plus I can contain it and the bleach together for a time to let it have the maximum effect, before airing it out.
Posted on 04 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
hotwired wrote:
The chlorine treatment was to disinfect mostly the surface, so it isn’t spread by wind. To completely treat your soil, you would have to remove every trace of root, tubers and plant material, and soak the soil down below the lowest area that roots penetrated. That might work for a planter box, but it sure wouldn’t be practical for a field of potatoes. The disease will live for 2-3 years in the soil, so in his case he planted corn in that field the following year, which isn’t affected by the disease.
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If you’re going to sterilize the soil with chlorine, you need to rinse it down thoroughly with clean water afterward, and let it stand over the winter for the chlorine to dissipate. Remember chlorine blocks photosynthesis (kills algae) and the chlorophyll processing of plants.
Posted on 04 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
seajda wrote:
So sorry for your loss. It’s frustrating to do so much work and have such anticipation only to see this happen. I thought I might have losses when I spotted a doe in my vegetable garden. (I have a 6 foot fence around it!) She must have just discovered it, because there was no munching. But now I find myself checking the garden every hour!
Posted on 04 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
hotwired wrote:
@Seajda…. Deer are a real pain. Maybe you should get a guard cat…
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5051/cougarex.jpg
Posted on 04 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
halhurst wrote:
I read a reference to palm trees getting this bacterial soft rot as well, and there are palm seeds in the city mulch I got. Who knows what else was in it? I was just relieved not to find glass and used syringes in there.
I may have introduced the culture when I tried unsuccessfully to sprout market potatoes in late winter. Some of those rotted instead of sprouting. I didn’t think it was anything but dead plant material self-composting at the time, but I would not be so casual again.
On cleanup and sterilization: I’m thinking whether I put bad potatoes or spots cut out of potatoes in worm compost previously- I’m certainly not going to do it from here on out. I may have toxic worm castings as well.
Posted on 04 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
seajda wrote:
@hotwired – LOL (I’d probably be the one getting tracked!)
Posted on 04 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
ves wrote:
This is a shame. Have you checked for tubers? You might have some small ones.
Posted on 04 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
halhurst wrote:
@ sea: I hear that deer can be voracious. Don’t you have to make a fence too high to jump?
@ves: Saturday I deconstruct the disaster.
Posted on 04 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
hotwired wrote:
Deer are really stupid. I was sitting on the deck at the cottage and snapped a picture that proves just how stupid they really are. I probably shouldn’t post it here, but I nearly fell off the deck reaching for my camera and laughing. Sorry about that….
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/641/targetx.jpg [It’s an Archery Target]
@Seajda…. Try Liquid Fence, Deer & Rabbit Repellent. Available at Home Depot (Warning – Don’t spill any on you, because it smells really bad and doesn’t wash off). I know it doesn’t wash off for a fact because I slept in the guest room that night.
Posted on 04 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
seajda wrote:
@halhurst – I thought I had!
@hotwired – that’s one desperate buck! I’ll try the Liquid Fence, Deer and Rabbit Repellent or I could set up the archery target 5 acres over!
Posted on 05 Jun 10 (almost 3 years ago)
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