Gran Bretaña: Farmer Focus: Are we heading to a potato blight Armageddon?

Grain crops have steadied up well and, if we could get rain before harvest, I would be disappointed if crops don’t yield our five-year average. 

Spring oats have exploded with growth and look very healthy. Perhaps the cold temperatures are keeping disease at bay?

See also: Why late blight management just got more complicated for 2024  

Spring beans on lighter soil are struggling for moisture, which is crazy when you think of the weather over the past 12 months.

Last night, I attended a potato blight meeting which updated local growers on the severity of the blight problems across the UK and EU.

The meeting was very informative and really highlighted the seriousness of the situation. One attendee stated that this had the potential for Armageddon.

If farmers are not on our A-game, we could easily be facing a potato famine.

The importance of not block spraying or using single actives and alternating actives each week was highlighted. Extending spray windows to more than seven days is not recommended.

One point on tramlines highlighted the risks from damaged leaf area, with EU farmers now opting not to plant tramline runs and move to wider booms.

I have certainly seen the benefits of spacing out my tramline beds to give room for wheeling’s and reduce damage.

When you take the loss of actives (we can’t use mancozeb here in Northern Ireland) and the known resistance of certain strains, a 15-week spray programme using two actives every seven days, without exceeding the maximum number of uses, becomes a stretch.

With 10 modes of action and no more than 20% to include oxathiapiprolin, we don’t have much choice. Not to mention doubling the cost of your spray programme from what it was five years ago. 

We discussed if it was time to ban garden centres from selling seed potatoes to the public, who have no access to chemicals and are unknowingly spreading blight?

Seed producers in the EU are now refusing to supply organic farmers with seed, as they know the risk of infection is so high it threatens long-term production.