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Jean_Tessmer wrote: I have been growing organic potatoes successfully for many years but suddenly just one raised planter full of an heirloom fingerling potato (La Ratte) has wilted prematurely, with silvery diseased appearing leaves and weak stems. If I pull up a diseased looking plant, potatoes are about grape size or smaller, though the number of potatoes is about what I would have expected to see. These shouldn’t be ready to harvest for another 4 to 6 weeks.
Planters right next to this one, with same batch of organic potato seed, type of dirt, mulch and amendments have very healthy plants. I am growing these at 4000 feet in Hawaii. Weather this summer has been untypically cold (50-60 degrees), with more rain than usual, but all the plantars are subject to the same conditions, and generally potatoes grow well through all our seasons in Hawaii - hot, cool, dry. The only thing they can't take is too much water. We also have pheasants and franklins that occasionally will try to nest in the vegetable beds and manage to break a few potato stems, but that has never affected the whole plant like this.
I would appreciate any ideas of what is going wrong, and what I should do to protect the rest of my home crop. Should I pull out all diseased plants before this spreads further? Is it most likely a pest or a disease? I've posted 4 photos of the diseased plants and one for the healthy plants.
