How to deal with late blight on potatoes, description and treatment of the disease
Phytophthora on potatoes is a rather dangerous phenomenon that can significantly reduce the amount of the crop. In some cases, late blight of potatoes leads to the complete death of all planted bushes. When the first signs of the disease appear on the potato, it is necessary to immediately start treating the plants. However, before that, you should familiarize yourself with how to deal with late blight.
Reasons for infection
The description and treatment of many diseases of vegetables are interrelated and therefore, before spraying potatoes, it is necessary to study in more detail the features of late blight.
There are several common reasons due to which late blight of potatoes can appear. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with them in advance in order to avoid the recurrence of this problem in the future. The most common routes of contamination of vegetables include:
- Poor disinfection of tubers before planting. If the potatoes are not processed before planting, then they will contain dangerous fungi that can infect the potatoes during cultivation.
- Contact with contaminated tops. In this case, already harvested tubers that have come into contact with infected bushes during harvesting become sick. 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 root crops is carried out due to heavy rains. They can transfer the late blight fungus from the 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 no infected vegetables are grown nearby.
Signs
Before processing potatoes from late blight, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of its manifestation. This will help to understand how the infected plants look and timely confirm the presence of harmful fungal microorganisms on the bushes.
The fact that a fungus has appeared on the bushes is evidenced by a dark bloom on the potato leaves. This is the main sign confirming that the bush is sick. Over time, during the growth of vegetables, a white bloom 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 past 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 in all possible ways.
How can you deal with late blight on potatoes
Currently, there are various measures to combat potato late blight. It is imperative that you familiarize yourself with them in order to choose the most effective methods of struggle.
How to deal with late blight on potatoes with chemicals
Some growers are not sure if potatoes can be chemically treated. It is definitely possible, since such treatment of potatoes from late blight will help to quickly get rid of this disease. Before treating the bushes, you need to familiarize yourself with the most effective remedies for fungal diseases.
Epin
To strengthen the immune system of plants, it is recommended to spray the infected potatoes with Epin. This drug is a biological stimulant that has an anti-stress effect. If you regularly use this tool, the seedlings will improve immunity to common diseases and temperature extremes. Also, some advise using Epin to increase yields.
Before protecting a potato 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 against fungal diseases, curly leaves, scab on pears and peronosporosis in cucumbers. The drug is used only after flowering and therefore it is better to refuse the use of Homa during flowering.
If you are fighting late blight with the help of Homa, then you need to think about precautions. During the creation of the working fluid and spraying the bushes, the person must have personal protective equipment. His eyes and skin must be reliably protected from liquid getting on them. Prepare rubber gloves, respirators and special goggles in advance to protect your eyes.
Having completely secured yourself, you can start preparing the working solution. For this, 40 grams of the drug is added to 10 liters of water. After that, the liquid is thoroughly mixed and another 2-4 liters of water are added to it. Do not use too much mixture when spraying. About a liter of the prepared solution is consumed per 10 square meters.
Trichopolus
Sometimes the fight against late blight of potatoes is carried out using Trichopol tablets. Before using the mixture, it is recommended to determine the processing time. It is recommended to use it before flowering or after it.
To independently prepare a liquid for processing 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 consumed immediately after preparation. For spraying, it is better to choose sunny days, since in rainy weather the mixture will wash off the leaves. It is necessary to deal with the processing of the bushes regularly, every ten days.
How to deal with late blight on potatoes with folk remedies
Sometimes chemical preparations do not help get rid of phytophthora and you have to fight it with folk remedies.
Garlic with manganese
A rather effective folk remedy for late blight on potatoes is a tincture made from potassium permanganate and ordinary 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 with 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 the garlic is mixed and poured into a ten-liter jar of water. If you have already sprayed the bushes this week, then the next time the procedure should be repeated after 15 days.
Tinder
Also, drugs made from tree tinder fungus are good for treating the disease. In order to create effective folk remedies for late blight from it, you should dry the collected mushrooms a little. Then they are finely chopped with a knife and minced in a meat grinder. After that, the mushroom mass is poured into a small saucepan and poured 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 process potato bushes.
Prevention of the disease with liquid from the tinder fungus is carried out during the formation of the fruit. Spray the infected plants once a week.
Copper sulfate
The emerging disease can be eliminated with copper sulfate. However, before using copper sulfate, one should familiarize oneself with the peculiarities of preparing a working solution. To do this, add 100-120 grams of the substance to five liters of cold water and stir everything well. Then 150 grams of slaked lime is 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 consumed 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 it from this and what to do when this disease appears. To do this, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the photo of late blight of potatoes in order to know how it looks and quickly identify the disease. You should also familiarize yourself with the most common methods of dealing with late blight.
