(Irish) Potato Famine Fungus Found in Plattsburgh (NY)

WCAX ^ | 6/30/09

[Straight Vermonter]

The plant fungus that caused the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s has shown up in Plattsburgh, and experts say residents need to act quickly.

It's called "late blight" and it affects eggplants, potatoes and tomatoes. The fungus hasn't made it this far north in about a decade, but it moves quickly and can kill an infected plant in as short as a week and a half. The signs that your plants have late blight are brownish lesions on the leaves which make them look wet. Late blight was discovered in the region at unnamed major box stores on Friday. It came to the area because a vegetable wholesaler apparently sold the stores infected tomato plants.

Officials say if you've bought any tomato, eggplant or potato plants that were not grown locally you should throw them out. However, do not compost or burn the infected plant because the spores will travel up to four miles.

[Straight Vermonter]

Watch your gardens folks.

[thefactor]

i've been to Plattsburgh.

finding fungus up there doesn't surprise me in the least.

[DManA]

Kudos to WCAX for not making the obligatory link to global warming.

The fungus hasn't made it this far north in about a decade,

[Straight Vermonter]

No kidding!

[DManA]

So, what’s the cure?

[who knows what evil?]

Get this out to the ‘Garden List’ ASAP!

[RC2]

My question exactly. If you can’t burn them, what do you do with them? I’ve always heard that you should always get seed potato’s that are clean and germ free.

[Red_Devil 232]

Ping to Weekly Gardening List.

[Calpernia]

Please ping all your agri and garden lists.

[who knows what evil?]

Thanks...it will be great to get feedback from Diana and Garden Girl...

[Colonel Kangaroo]

The fungus hasn't made it this far north in about a decade,

About the time we had our last Democratic president and green vice president. Seems to me that a case could be made for associating Democrats with potato fungus.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Interestingly, my ancestors ended up in Plattsburgh in 1845 after fleeing the Potato Famine in Ireland.

[The Great RJ]

Certainly due to global warming and is George Bush’s fault. Now if Lord Obama would just lay hands on the infected plants to heal them and give massive subsidies to potato, egg plant and tomato farmers, production would be stimulated and this crisis solved. (sarcasm)

[HollyB]

Kind of ironic, for sure.

[dfwgator]

Damn English!

[Cinnamon Girl]

[sneakers]

I started my tomatoes and eggplants from seeds!

[hiredhand]

Did you see this?...probably want to follow it!

[reformedliberal]

Most blights are caused by long periods of wet, cool weather as the fruits are ripening. I had a blight of some sort on my beefsteak tomatoes (late bearers) last summer, due to precisely those conditions. I am not sure, but I think, for tomatoes, anyway, it is more likely on indeterminates.

There are products on the market that contain bacillius subtilis, are rated organic and are supposed to cure the blight. Look on Gardeners.com, which has identifying photos, explanations and a lot of information on use.

The best cure is hot, sunny weather.

[investigateworld]

Ping

[pappyone]

Right, same here on Mom’s side (Cobb). Damn Irish, can’t go anywhere without takeing a Potato blight with them.

[Daisyjane69]

oh wow...

Blights are a nightmare!

[Deb]

Here’s hoping the folks from Plattsburgh aren’t too drunk to fish.

[RC2]

Thanks for the info. It’s over 100 degrees here now and my beefsteaks are just getting started. Hopefully they don’t have any problems.

[Red_Devil 232]

Bonnie Plants of Alabama

[chris_bdba]

We raised all of our own plants from seed this year in the little plastic greenhouses you can buy at Walmart. Hopefully we won’t be infected with any of this. All of my tomatoe plats this year are heirloom varities as well as the bell peppers too. Hopefully my 88 tomoato platns will give us enough canned for two years. :)

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Isn’t globalism great?

[Petronski]

My tater patch is bearing little purple blooms now. No sign of the blight, but I do have plants so heavy they sometimes tip over and then bend back upward through phototropism, forming an odd l-shaped plant.

I hope that means I’ll be getting taters.

[Petronski]

Actually, they start out l-shaped, but end up L-shaped.

[Just mythoughts]

Thank you for the ping.

I am planning to dig into my potato bed sometime this or next week.... I had the most awesome top showing, waist high, and am hoping that not all went atop but under ground as welll..

My vines are already laying down and I have covered their base with straw I have been preparing just for them the past three years.

[dangerdoc]

bump

[driftless2]

"fleeing"

Where in Ireland did they come from? My wife and I just recently returned from a trip there. One of our obsessions was observing all the famine houses omnipresent and we drove around the country. How many sad stories there were. On one of our last nights in Ireland we stayed at a B&B in Doolin. As we got into our room I looked out the window to view the scenery. Right across the road was a famine house. We hadn't even noticed it when we checked in.

[metmom]

Good question. I thought burning was the best thing to do with infected items.

Throwing them out?!?!

[patton]

Famine house? Vacant, I presume?

[driftless2]

"vacant"

They're all stone houses with no roofs. When evicting the tenants, one of the first things the landlords did was to remove the roof. So there are thousands of these stone houses around the country with walls but no roofs. And nobody inside except for maybe ghosts.

[patton]

I did not know that - thanks.

[dforest]

This is the 1st year I have tried potatoes. Mine are blooming and tall. I did mound the dirt twice.

Do you know a good way to dig them out after the leaves turn brown?

That is, if there are any under there.

[Jackknife]

Obama’s fault.

[Petronski]

This is my first year too.

I was thinking I'd read up on it, maybe use one of these:

[dforest]

Well, thanks. I had considered a shovel. I was just afraid I would harpoon the taters while digging.

I figured someone more knowledgable at growing taters had a secret!

[La Enchiladita]

They said the spuds are blighted, not bloated... hehe.

[La Enchiladita]

Makes perfect sense. New York’s had nothing but rain for months, so I’ve heard. Pray for drought:)

[Petronski]

Sorry, what I meant to say is that particular kind of shovel.

As I said, I’ve never grown them before.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Where in Ireland did they come from?

My sister-in-law has been working hard to trace our family records, but apparently the trail goes cold in Ireland. No records indicating where my immigrant ancestors lived over there.

This was probably intentional, because from what I heard, they most likely came into the US illegally (via Canada).

[Just mythoughts]

I use a ‘potato’ fork. Something like a pitchfork but smaller and the tines are more flattened and rounded so as to help prevent from digging into the potatoes instead of dirt. Potatoes grow near the top of the soil and can easily sunburn when the vines die down. A sunburned potato is green and bitter. The potato will continue to grow even after the vine dies down and needs to have some sort of mulch or soil covering over the top. I have found that at least 3 inches of straw works best as it is easiest to remove. This fork works also for digging out sweet potatoes.

This year I am hoping my soil is fluffy enough I can dig in with my bare hands.

[gardengirl]

Y’all are worried about ONE little blight? Bwahaha

We have early blight, late blight,....

Seriously, check your plants. If you find any infected ones, get rid of them. My personal choice is to burn them, but the article said not to. Having no experience with this particular blight, I’ll take the author’s word for it. What ever you do—DO NOT put infected plants on your compost pile!

Bag them and put them in the trash? I don’t know.

We grow most of our own plants, but we get a few things from Bonnie’s. Vidalias mostly. Any time the conditions are too wet, you’re going to get funky things. Of course, hot dry weather brings its own set of problems.

Best thing you can do is be aware and act accordingly. Keep a close eye on your plants and the weather.

[Red_Devil 232]

I am not worried just passing along some info.

[djf]

They need lots of potassium. Potassium is used by plants to create starches, which most root/tuber type vegetables have a lot of.

[dforest]

Thank you, I am giving it a try. We have had some odd weather this year. Not sure what I will get out of my garden.

The last 10 days we had really hot weather and sun. Before that we had too much rain and cloudiness.

Now it is cool and cloudy.

I guess I will have to take what I get.

[70times7]

My family had a rather big garden when I was growing up. A neighbor who was perhaps in his 60s in the early 70's told us to use a pitch fork (short "D" handle w/ 5 tines) to turn over the dirt.

He was a proud Irishman, and knew what it meant to do things the "old fashioned" way. As a young man he worked as a blacksmith. Back then he and his wife were still keeping chickens for eggs and a cow for dairy.

I suspect he knew what he was talking about. That's what we used and it worked well. Not sure how good your luck will be finding one though, the one we used was his and was probably already and antique then.