Common Scab affects Potato Tubers.
Common Scab (Latin name – Streptomyces scabies) causes the skin of potatoes to develop dark, scaby patches which can cause pitting or cracking of the skin.
The disease is only skin deep and the eating quality is unaffected.
Common scab is caused by soil borne bacteria.
Common Scab occurrs when the soil is:
* light and sandy
* alkaline
* deficient in organic matter
* dry at tuber initiation
Prevention of Common Scab:
* plant healthy seed with clean skins
* grow resistant varieties such as King Edward, Pentland Crown, Pentland Javelin & Maris Peer
* do not lime the soil before planting potatoes
* dig in compost or other organic matter to help preserve moisture
Treatment:
* there are no sprays for common scab in potatoes
The sun has come out, and the broccoli leaves are going limp and wilting in the vegetable garden.
wilting-broccoli
The broccoli roots are not able to take in enough water, to replace that lost by the leaves in transpiration. As the sun warms up, the rate of transpiration (water loss) will increase.
The garden soil is waterlogged after the recent heavy rains and flooding. The roots have not been able to grow, and some have probably died off. But the leaf canopy has continued to grow although the roots are not able to support it. Now the leaves are showing their discomfort, and lack of water, by drooping.
Wilting is also an indication of cabbage root fly. At the moment we are hoping the wilting in the broccoli is caused by water logging of the vegetable garden.
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Some poatoes are cracked when they are dug out of the ground in the vegetable garden. The cause of the cracking is usually irregular rainfall or watering.
This year the UK experienced dry conditions in the spring. The first rains to end the drought caused a spurt in growth, which caused the potatoes to crack.
cracked-potatoes
Some gardeners are finding that when they dig a root of potatoes out of the garden, the large ones are cracked, but the smaller potatoes are perfectly formed. The potatoes in the photo above are all from the same root of potatoes, the variety is Estima.
The reason for the big potatoes being cracked and not the smaller ones is that the smaller ones were not initiated until after the drought, whereas tuber initiation of the larger potatoes had occurred when it was still very dry in the vegetable garden.
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Slugs love this wet weather. In the evening, all shapes and sizes of slugs appear in the vegetable garden.
They are all colours – white, black, striped and so on.
black-slug-on-cabbage
This large black slug was busy shredding a cabbage leaf.
slug-on-cabbage
Slugs belong to the phylum of molluscs, in the class Gastropoda, which
are soft-bodied invertebrate animals.
Slugs are related to snails, but do not have a shell. All slugs have a
protective coat of slime and a distinctive head with protruding
tentacles, which have eyes at the end. The tentacles are used to smell
and locate food. Slugs eat plants so they are a great pest in the
vegetable garden; some species are carnivorous and eat other slugs,
snails, and earthworms.
Slugs need moist conditions, which is why they multiply in the wet season.
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The early broad beans, planted in November, have cropped heavily but are
now over, & will be replaced with runner beans.
finished-broad-beans
The broad beans went into good soil with a good structure. Thanks to the
bed system, this soil has not been trodden on, because the plants can be
harvested from the paths alongside the beds. So no cultivation work is
necessary. There are no weeds, and therefore the soil need not be disturbed.
The soil is very wet from recent rains, and would easily loose its
structure if moved.
The broad beans will be cut off at soil level, and the runner beans will
be transplanted directly into the broad bean patch.
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The early broad beans, planted in November, have cropped heavily but are
now over, & will be replaced with runner beans.
finished-broad-beans
The broad beans went into good soil with a good structure. Thanks to the
bed system, this soil has not been trodden on, because the plants can be
harvested from the paths alongside the beds. So no cultivation work is
necessary. There are no weeds, and therefore the soil need not be disturbed.
The soil is very wet from recent rains, and would easily loose its
structure if moved.
The broad beans will be cut off at soil level, and the runner beans will
be transplanted directly into the broad bean patch.
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The bean row has a succession of beans, starting with broad beans planted in November, followed by two later plantings of broad beans, ending with runner beans and french beans.
bean-row
The early broad beans are now over. The second planting of broad beans, Sutton, have suffered from Chocolate Spot.
They have not grown as tall as the first planting, but they have produced a reasonable amount of beans, and the pods have not been affected by the Chocolate Spot fungus.
chocolate-spot-on-beans
The final planting of broad beans, Bunyards Exhibition & Masterpiece Green Long Pod, are taller and less branching than the early variety. They look clean, with little disease. The pods
are developing well.
Bunyards-Exhibition-&-Maste
The runner beans and french beans are streaking up the supports at the far end of the row, spiralling anticlockwise tightly around the pole.
beans-climbing-poles
Now the first lot of broad beans is finished, they will be replaced with more runner beans. So this patch will be double cropped with beans, broad beans at the start of the season, and runner beans to finish the season.
broad-bean-stump
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The difference between New Potatoes and Main Crop.
New potatoes have loose skins & are the first potatoes to be harvested each year.
Main Crop potatoes provide the main proportion of the potatoes we eat.
Main crop potatoes are left in the ground until they have ‘bulked up’ (grown to a good size).
Main crop potatoes are lifted & stored through the winter, to give a constant supply of potatoes until the following year’s earlies are ready. But the skins must ‘set‘ for the potatoes to store satisfactorily.
The difference between New and Main Crop potatoes is that the skins are “set” on main crop. Sharpes Express, Maris Bard, Rocket, etc. are traditionally grown as New potatoes, but any variety can be defined as New, depending on when it is harvested. King Edwards & Pink Fir Apple, usually grown as main crop, may be lifted before the skins are set, and eaten as new potatoes.
Related articles:
How to Deal with Potatoes that Look Ready.
Potato Skins must Set for Storage.
Look after Potato Ridges.
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The Small-Leaved Lime (Latin name – Tilia cordata), also known as the Linden tree, is in flower now.
bunch-of-lime-flowers
The flower head is composed of 3-16 flowers and has a large thin bract at the base of the flower stalk. The flowers are yellowish white and incredibly fragrant.
flowers-of-lime
Lime flowers are picked and dried for use as Lime tea. The flowers are picked with the bract. They are dried over 4 weeks in a dry, dark, warm place with good air circulation. When dry, they are stored in a dry place.
bract&flower
The dry flowers are used to make tea. Boiling water is poured over the flowers and they are left for 10 minutes, before the tea is strained.
lime-flower
Lime tea is a good medicine to help colds and flu in the winter.
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We all learn so much from each other, particularly in the gardening world.
* One of the main benefits of having an allotment, is experiencing
the community that goes with it. Sharing knowledge, unwanted
seedlings or spare time helps the giver and the receiver.
* The gardening forums on the internet have a huge readership, and
log a mountain of useful facts.
* Now vegetable growing blogs are increasing all over the world.
Prims Place in Spring Valley is a blog set up in 2004, based in W. Pennsylvania USA. What a surprise to see their post thanking TopVeg for information on growing shallots from seed.
Vegetable growing blogs allow us to share ideas, and there are many
techniques that we can learn from our friends overseas, whether they are
growing veg in similar conditions or not.
They also remind us that we are all human – have a wonderful wedding day, on 07/07/07, ‘daughter of Prims Place’.
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