Late blight on potatoes is a rather dangerous phenomenon that can significantly reduce the amount of harvest. In some cases, potato late blight leads to the complete death of all planted bushes. When the first signs of disease appear on potatoes, it is necessary to immediately treat the plants. However, before doing this, you should familiarize yourself with how to deal with late blight.
Causes of infection
The description and treatment of many vegetable diseases are interconnected, and therefore, before spraying potatoes, it is necessary to study the features of late blight in more detail.
There are several common reasons why potato late blight may occur. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with them in advance to avoid recurrence of this problem in the future. The most common ways of infecting vegetables include:
- Poor disinfection of tubers before planting. If the potatoes are not treated before planting, they will harbor dangerous fungi that can infect the potatoes during cultivation.
- Contact with infected tops. In this case, already harvested tubers that came into contact with infected bushes during harvesting become diseased. To protect them from disease, it is better to remove all tops from the garden before harvesting.
- High humidity. Quite often, the spread of the disease from leaves to roots is due to heavy rains. They can transfer the late blight fungus from the above-ground part of the bushes into the soil.
- Strong wind. Sometimes the disease spreads to neighboring plants by airborne droplets during strong gusts of wind. In such weather, spores from infected vegetables are transferred to healthy bushes growing nearby. Therefore, in order to save potatoes from late blight, it is necessary to ensure that infected vegetables are not grown nearby.
Signs
Before treating potatoes against late blight, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of its manifestation. This will help you understand what infected plants look like and promptly confirm the presence of harmful fungal microorganisms on the bushes.
The fact that a fungus has appeared on the bushes is indicated by a darkish coating on the potato leaves.This is the main sign confirming that the bush is sick. Over time, as vegetables grow, a white coating begins to appear on the back of the leaves. At first it will not be too large, but then the size of the plaque will begin to increase. The most common month for these symptoms to appear is July. However, in the last few years, fungi have begun to appear on potatoes much earlier - in May and June.
When the above signs appear, you must immediately get rid of late blight by all possible means.
How can you fight late blight on potatoes?
Currently, there are various measures to combat potato late blight. You should definitely familiarize yourself with them in order to choose the most effective methods of control.
How to combat late blight on potatoes with chemicals
Some vegetable growers are not sure whether potatoes can be treated with chemicals. It is definitely possible, since such treatment of potatoes against late blight will help to quickly get rid of this disease. Before treating bushes, you need to familiarize yourself with the most effective remedies for fungal diseases.
Epin
To strengthen the plants' immune system, it is recommended to spray infected potatoes with Epin. This drug is a biological stimulant that has an anti-stress effect. If you regularly use this product, the seedlings' immunity to common diseases and temperature changes will improve. Also, some advise using Epin to increase productivity.
Before you protect potatoes with Epin, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of its use. The drug is produced in the form of ampoules, each of which contains 0.3 ml of liquid. Two hours before treatment, one ampoule must be diluted in five liters of water.When the solution is ready, you need to inspect the bushes and get rid of dried leaves or stems. When using Epin, 100 ml of solution is consumed for each bush.
Hom
A fairly effective remedy against late blight is the drug Hom. It has a wide spectrum of action and, therefore, with its help you can save not only potatoes, but also other plants. Using Hom, they fight fungal diseases, leaf curl, scab on pears and downy mildew in cucumbers. The drug is used only after flowering and therefore it is better to avoid using Khoma during flowering.
If you are fighting late blight with the help of Khoma, then you need to think about precautions. When creating a working fluid and spraying bushes, a person must wear personal protective equipment. His eyes and skin must be reliably protected from contact with liquid. You should prepare rubber gloves, respirators and special glasses to protect your eyes in advance.
Having completely protected yourself, you can begin preparing the working solution. To do this, 40 grams of the drug is added to 10 liters of water. After this, the liquid is thoroughly mixed and another 2-4 liters of water are added to it. When spraying, do not use too much mixture. About a liter of prepared solution is consumed per 10 square meters.
Trichopolum
Sometimes the fight against potato late blight is carried out using Trichopolum tablets. Before using the mixture, it is recommended to determine the processing time. It is recommended to use it before or after flowering.
To prepare your own liquid for treating potato bushes, you will have to dilute 15-20 tablets of the medicine in 10 liters of water. The created mixture is not stored for a long time and therefore it must be used immediately after preparation. It is better to choose sunny days for spraying, as in rainy weather the mixture will be washed off the leaves. You need to treat the bushes regularly, every ten days.
How to properly combat late blight on potatoes using folk remedies
Sometimes chemicals do not help get rid of late blight and you have to fight it with folk remedies.
Garlic with manganese
A fairly effective folk remedy for late blight on potatoes is a tincture made from potassium permanganate and regular garlic. For many years, gardeners got rid of late blight with its help.
To prepare a medicinal tincture, you will need to grind 100-150 grams of garlic using a meat grinder and add them to a glass of cold water. The resulting mixture is infused for two days, after which it is filtered and a gram of potassium permanganate is added to it. The liquid with garlic is mixed and poured into a ten-liter jar of water. If you have already sprayed the bushes this week, then next time the procedure must be repeated after 15 days.
tinder
Preparations made from the wood tinder fungus are also good for treating the disease. To create effective folk remedies for late blight from it, you should slightly dry the collected mushrooms. Then they are finely chopped with a knife and minced in a meat grinder. After this, the mushroom mass is poured into a small saucepan and filled with 10 liters of hot boiled water.
The container with the mixture is tightly covered with a lid and infused for about 5 hours.Then the solution is filtered and used to treat potato bushes.
Prevention of the disease with liquid from the tinder fungus is carried out during the formation of fruits. Infected plants should be sprayed once a week.
Copper sulfate
The emerging disease can be eliminated with copper sulfate. However, before using copper sulfate, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of preparing the working solution. To do this, add 100-120 grams of the substance to five liters of cold water and mix everything thoroughly. Then 150 grams of slaked lime are added to the mixture.
The solution does not have a long shelf life and must be used within five hours after preparation. About 200 ml of solution should be used for each bush. After 2-3 treatments on potato leaves a film will begin to appear, which will further protect them from diseases.
Conclusion
Quite often late blight appears on potatoes and many do not know how to protect them from this and what to do when this disease appears. To do this, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the photo of potato late blight in order to know what it looks like and quickly identify the disease. You should also familiarize yourself with the most common methods of controlling late blight.
