Many in our country cannot imagine their life without potatoes. This vegetable is often grown in suburban areas. This process is quite simple, the main thing is to constantly monitor the bushes of the plant. Indeed, in addition to pests, various diseases threaten potatoes. Some pathogens have become much more sustainable over the past few years. And everyone knows that only from a healthy and full-fledged bush can a good crop be harvested.
Today we’ll talk about how to get rid of late blight on potatoes. To get a good harvest, you should know how this disease manifests itself and how to deal with it.
Causes of the disease
To get a good potato crop, it is necessary to study the characteristics of the plant disease. Thanks to this information, you will know exactly how to get rid of late blight on potatoes. The causative agent of this disease is the pathogenic fungus of the same name, which belongs to the category of simple fungi - oomycetes.
Late blight is a dangerous disease for plants belonging to the genus nightshade: peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant. This disease also affects buckwheat, raspberries, strawberries and castor oil.
The spread of the disease occurs through phytospores. They are washed off from the terrestrial part of the plant. Through the soil capillaries, the fungus enters the tubers and stem.
Features of late blight
The incubation period is from 3 to 16 days. The fungus can progress rapidly on weakened soils. The same situation can be observed on the plant in the presence of pathogenic flora in the planting material. In such conditions, the disease can manifest itself after 3-4 days.
Affected tubers can be seen at the harvesting stage. Part of the crop can be lost if the diseased tops were in contact with the eyes of the tubers. Remember, with incisions, the risk of spreading the disease increases significantly.
Want to stop the spread of the disease? Then you should check all of the above reasons. How to get rid of late blight on potatoes using chemicals or folk remedies, we learn a little later.
Ideal conditions for the development of the disease
Phytophthora belongs to viral fungi. This category loves moisture and moderate temperature. Ideal conditions for the propagation of this disease are rainy days at an air temperature of up to 25 ° C. A heap planting also affects the rapid spread of the disease. In such conditions, it is not necessary to have rainy weather. Thick dew will contribute to the development of late blight.
Hot summers, high temperatures prevent the spread of this fungus, but the affected plants no longer develop as they should.
In order to understand how to get rid of late blight on potatoes, you should know the signs of the disease.
The danger of late blight is that if there are only a few infected bushes on the plot, then after 2 weeks all plantings of potatoes can be affected. If no measures are taken, then after 20 days the potatoes will die.
Signs of late blight on potatoes
Affected potatoes can be identified with the naked eye. Most often they can be seen in the second half of summer in almost all regions of our country. In the southern regions on early varieties of potato late blight can be seen in early summer.
So, what signs indicate that the plant is affected by the fungus? What are the symptoms of this disease? How to get rid of late blight on potatoes?
First of all, you should carefully inspect the plant. On the infected bush on the leaves, spots appear on the edges. They quickly increase in size, become brown.
White marks appear on the bottom plate of the sheet. These are the spores through which the plant is infected. Leaves in rain often rot. Dark marks often appear on the stems.
Gray spots appear on the surface of the affected tubers, acquiring a brown color. They harden and gradually go deep inside. If you cut such a potato, it seems like it is rusty.
Under favorable conditions (moisture and heat), a secondary bacterial infection develops. The fungal mycelium remains in the tubers. It safely winters and sprouts in the spring.
So we learned how to identify a bush affected by a disease. But how to get rid of late blight on potatoes?
Prevention
Particular attention should be paid to prevention. How to get rid of late blight on potatoes in this case? The main thing is to plant high-quality, healthy seed on healthy and well-groomed soil.
Particular attention should be paid to the soil. It is advisable to choose flat areas of land. Planting potatoes in a lowland is not recommended, because moisture accumulates here, and this is a potentially dangerous zone. The area should be well ventilated and illuminated. You should also worry about normal drainage.
Many people think that severe frosts can kill late fungus in the ground. But the pathogen is gradually adapting to the conditions. For example, in the southern regions, winter is no longer afraid of this fungus. Therefore, experts recommend soil tillage from the autumn period.
Is it possible to get rid of late blight on potatoes? Of course yes. After all, the main thing is to pay due attention to prevention and conduct proper treatment of plants.
Attention should be paid to potato precursors annually. It is advisable that flax, corn, beets and other perennial plants grow on this place earlier.
Next to potatoes, it is better to plant mustard and radish.
It’s better to plant nightshade: pepper, tomatoes, eggplant.
Many gardeners begin to fight phytophthora even before planting potatoes. First of all, you should choose healthy tubers. For this, the potatoes are heated for 2 weeks in the open air at a temperature of 15-18 ° C. At this stage, the first signs of the disease — spots, already appear. Such tubers should not be used for planting.
Proper cultivation of a healthy crop
After choosing a good planting material, you should carry out the initial processing of tubers. To do this, use potassium phosphorus compounds in industrial doses. Experts recommend increasing the concentration of potassium compounds in 2 times. But phosphorus preparations increase by 1.5 times.
Tubers are planted deep in the ground. Young bushes necessarily spud. Grooves are recommended to be watered with a hose, and not with a drop. Plants should be inspected regularly. Having found a diseased bush, it should be removed from the site.
Some gardeners prefer to cut the tops 2 weeks before harvesting. In this case, you cannot delay the harvest. Dig the crop should be in sunny, dry weather. As we remember, moisture is the closest friend of a harmful fungus. How to get rid of late blight on potatoes? Ways to combat this disease will be described below.
Chemical treatment
Want to get a good harvest? In this case, one should deal not only with the prophylaxis of seed, but also with the quality treatment of plants and soil.
An affected bush with late blight, proceeding in an active form, cannot be cured. But the focus of the disease can be localized, preventing the disease from spreading and affecting other healthy plants. A variety of drugs and solutions help localize the fungus. What are the effective methods of struggle? How to get rid of late blight on potatoes?
The first treatment is carried out at the stage when the tops reach 30 cm in height. This is an ideal time for the first treatment of the plant. Most often, such industrial facilities as Ridomila are used.
The second time the plants are sprayed before flowering. Most often use "Epin". If only individual plants are affected by the disease, use Oxychom. To achieve a better effect, re-apply these drugs after 2 weeks. It is important to have time to process the plants before flowering.
After 1-2 weeks, it is necessary to carefully examine the bushes. If the threat of infection remains, strong drugs should be used: Revus, Ditan, Efal. If there is no focus of infection, then you can use the same drugs for prevention, only with a reduced dosage by half. Remember that phytophthora quickly gets used to the systemic use of the drug, therefore contact fungicides are used.
Processing after flowering
After flowering potatoes, you can use the drug "Bravo". They are treated with bushes every 10 days. For tubers use "Alufit".
Additionally, growth stimulants are also used. These drugs also increase the resistance of bushes to various diseases. Experts recommend diluting 5 ml of Ecosil and 150 ml of Oksigumata in 15 l of water.
Remember, before spraying plants, you should carefully study the weather forecast in your area. After all, rain will reduce all efforts to nothing, and you will have to re-process it.
Folk ways
Some gardeners shelter beds with agrofiber every evening. Remove it after the dew. This material is also used to protect bushes from rain. Thus, summer residents interfere with excessive hydration of plants, and hence the development of late blight. Such actions begin to be carried out in late July.
Inveterate summer residents do not want to oversaturate the bushes with chemicals, so they try to use other ways to combat various diseases. How to get rid of late blight on potatoes in folk ways? Consider the most effective of them:
- Horsetail infusion. The ground parts of the plant (1-2 kg) are poured with water (10 l) and left for several days.
- Garlic infusion. Garlic (any part of the plant weighing 100-150 g) is ground, poured with water in a ratio of 1: 1 and left for 1 day. The resulting infusion is diluted in 10 l of water, add 1 g of potassium permanganate. 2 times a month plants are treated with this solution.
- Ashes and laundry soap are diluted with water and sprayed with potatoes (for 10 liters of water - 1 liter of ash, 150-200 g of soap).
- 1 liter of milk, 15 drops of iodine and 10 liters of water are mixed and sprayed with plants 2 times a month.
- 2 tablespoons of urea, 1 kg of compost are diluted in 10 liters of water and left to infuse for a week. The resulting solution is sprayed with plants 2 times a month.
- 10 tablets of Trichopolum are dissolved in 10 l of water and the potatoes are sprayed.
Now you know how to get rid of late blight on potatoes with folk remedies.
Resistant late blight potato varieties
When choosing potato varieties resistant to late blight, do not be 100% sure that your plants will not be affected by this disease. The most sustainable include:
- Spring.
- Nevsky.
- Red Scarlett.
- Luck.
Less resistant are the varieties:
- Tomich.
- Verb.
- Rosara.
- Sante.
- Arina.
These varieties also resist fungus well. But the disease can affect different parts of the plant: some have stems, others have tubers.
More beneficial are early varieties. Phytophthora simply does not have time to appear on them.
Conclusion
Late blight is a dangerous disease for potatoes. The fungus can cause massive infection of plants. Many garden crops suffer from this fungus, including eggplant, tomatoes, buckwheat, onions, and cucumbers. You do not want this disease to develop in your garden? Carefully monitor the quality of planting material, regularly inspect plants, give preference to sustainable varieties and carry out preventive measures.