When a blight rains down on the potatoes (From Blackpool Citizen)

When a blight rains down on the potatoes

10:54am Thursday 19th July 2007

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I WROTE last week that the rainfall could cause problems in my raised bed urban garden.

Sadly one of my potato barrels which I have been nurturing for the last couple of months devloped some form of blight the stem having gone black and slimy.

I originally put this down to the deluge we've had over the last few weeks. I decided to take the plants out and see if I could save any potatoes. I was surprised to find that there were several average sized perfectly formed potatoes right at the bottom of the barrel.

These were the potted patio potatoes I bought and all I really retrieved was plant pot's worth from my large barrel. All that earthing up with compost had been a waste of time - obviously these potatoes were not the type which proliferated.

Perhaps that's why the stems went black - they're probably not designed to be left for such a long time. Lesson learned!

Anyway the compost, which was heaving with worms, has gone into my compost bin and hopefully will give it the kickstart it needs.

The second potato barrel, planted with proper seed potatoes given to me by a work colleague, is more advanced and has partly flowered.

It is completely untouched by any form of disease as far as I can see and is looking remarkably healthy - let's hope it keeps that way. I am told that the potatoes should be ready by September.

On the other hand the courgettes seem to love the rainfall and at the weekend I picked a monster which looked like a small marrow. Now we will have to find some recipes to make sure we use them all up in interesting ways.

The trouble with the courgette plants are the leaves and stems which are prickly and painful if you touch them. These plants certainly seem to have developed an excellent method of keeping predators away.

The peas are still coming - I think we will be ready to pick a few more this week as the pods harden. I have also noticed my beetroot was developing nicely on the surface of the soil - I didn't know this until a colleague told me.

The corn plants have also developed amazingly over the last 10 days shooting up in size and the ears of corn have grown rapidly and must only be a month or so off picking. I planted these as an experiment and didn't really expect them to grow as big as they have.

I was surprised to see two cauliflower heads which have suddenly appeared. One is fist-sized and is perfectly white and the other is about half that size. I will leave them a bit longer to see if they grow a lot bigger though I am worried that the steady rain may affect them.

I haven't had any problems at all with slugs but many gardeners I know have seen their vegetable crops decimated by these greedy creatures.

Mrs Muriel Eva has also suffered through slug attacks on her small vegetable plot in her back garden in Egerton. She said: "The slugs have eaten a lot of my spinach plants though they haven't touched the last lot we put in although that has gone thin and spindly. I think it must have bolted.

"My son Martin mainly grows the vegetables and I grow flowers. Our vegetable plot is about three feet by 12 feet and we grow purple sprouting broccoli, courgettes, potaotes in a sack which we saw on TV and of course spinach.

"We also grow blackcurrants and they've been attacked this years as well. It used to produce lovely blackcurrants which made good jam."

l Don't forget to read The Urban Gardener every Thursday in The Bolton News.

If you are proud of your vegetable plot or have any useful gardening tips contact me via email on wwright@theboltonnews.co.uk or phone me on 01204 537352.

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