The Dreaded B Word!

I suppose it was inevitable really, that due to the amount of warmth and moisture on the plot over the last few weeks, it looks as if my blight resistant potatoes may be starting to show signs of Potato Blight. This is not good news for veggie growers and early preventative measures should be taken. Blight is a fungus which thrives in these warm, damp conditions and if left un-treated will wash itself down into the soil and destroy all your potatoes underground as well. These dark brown patches are indicative of the early stages of blight. They are only appearing on a very few of the potato leaves and the vast majority are strong, green and healthy - but they won't stay that way. I dug up one plant and the potatoes are perfect and of a good enough size for a maincrop. My solution to this issue - was to remove all green growth from the plant and leave short stalks to show where the potatoes are underground. I made sure all green leaves were taken away and not put on the compost heap, they must be destroyed.

I hope that because this was a blight resistant variety Sarpo Axona, they may stand a better chance of surviving. Meanwhile, elsewhere on the plot, some good news. This heritage variety of climbing bean 'Lazy Housewife' is working hard. Healthy green leaves and masses of lovely beans which look like they are half way between a runner bean and a French bean. Superb taste, and very tender.

My sweet corn looks as if it might be starting to think about to prepare to get ready to eat. The tassles on the end of the cob have turned brown which indicates that pollination has taken place successfully. I opened the cob just a few inches and see that the corn kernels need just a bit longer to swell up and ripen. This variety is Conqueror which is bred to be more suitable to our cooler Summers!

This morning I carefully inspected every single leaf of every single broccoli plant. Here is an example of the eggs of the dastardly cabbage white butterfly. It is fiddly and time consuming but these must be squashed between thumb and finger if you don't want to spray.

Finally, you might remember that in the Spring I planted groups of White Lisbon spring onion seed in modules. I think they are called scallions in the USA? They were planted out in bunches so that they could be picked in bunches. Well, I didn't get round to eating many of them...

So they grew up!

Now I have bunches of large white onions - and boy are they strong!