Stumble It!Blight….
My potatoes got blight this year which means I can’t compost the tops of the plants, peelings or any other bits I cut off. Apparently you shouldn’t really compost spud bits anyway, unless you have a long term hot compost bin or heap. Which I don’t.
So this time they’ve gone in the grey bin and into landfill - which just sits wrong with me. If I’d put the blighted plants in the green bin I don;t actually know what my council do with the contents - which is card, kitchen waste, garden waste, compostable items generally but the stuff that’s just too heavy for my small bin, or that’s going to overwhelm it. Now if they compost or shred it I don’t want to be spreading blight around here and the spores from the blight fungus are tenacious!
So, they went to landfill this time. But that’s still not right and won’t get rid of the blight. Should I get one of those small bin like garden incinerators for this kind of situation? The ash would be ok on the garden I think? Or does the smoke and combustion cause it’s own problems?
Please do commence discussion and enlighten me…..
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August 10th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Ack! this is a bummer - sorry you had to endure this. Did you manage to save the crop itself?
I, personally would burn the foliage and use the ash on the garden or add it to the compost heap - but this isn’t based on any knowledge; it’s just a hunch.
For future reference, horsetail can arrest blight. We did this successfully and saved the entire crop
August 10th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Horsetail? How does that help preserve the spuds? And it’s a pervasive weed and I really don’t want it in my garden! We did save most of the tubers but they won’t store. That’s not a huge problem as I’m not into long term spud storage anyway, just means we have to eat them a bit faster.
I think I needs me one of them incinerator bin thingys.
Sarah
August 10th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
No, you don’t want it in your garden. But if it’s there and you have no choice, it’s good to find something positive to say about it
Horsetail is antifungal and we use the following recipe which is on my other, sadly neglected and out of date blog:
http://littlegreenblog.com/2008/01/15/horsetail-for-potato-blight/
August 10th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Ah right, I don’t have any growing here. But apparently dried horsetail is excellent to use as a washing up scrubber - like those scourer backed sponges. Natural pan scrub!
Sarah