Phytophthora on potatoes: how to fight, description and treatment with photos

Late blight on potatoes is a rather dangerous phenomenon that can significantly reduce the amount of the crop. In some cases, potato late blight 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.

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 late blight of potatoes may 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 infection for vegetables include:

Poor-quality disinfection of tubers before planting. If the potatoes are not treated before planting, then they will have dangerous fungi that can infect the potatoes during cultivation.
Contact with infected leaves. In this case, already harvested tubers become ill, which during harvesting were in contact with infected bushes. 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 carry 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 he althy 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 from late blight, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of its manifestation. This will help to understand what the infected plants look like and timely confirm the presence of harmful fungal microorganisms on the bushes.

The fact that a fungus appeared on the bushes is evidenced by a darkish coating on potato leaves. This is the main sign confirming that the bush is sick. Over time, during the growth of vegetables, 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 begin to appear on potatoes much earlier - in May and June.

When the above signs appear, you must immediately get rid of phytophthora by all possible means.

How to deal with 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 struggle.

How to deal with late blight on potatoes with chemicals

Some growers are unsure if potatoes can be treated with chemicals. It is definitely possible, since such processing of potatoes from phytophthora 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 infected potatoes with Epin. This drug is a biological stimulant that has an anti-stress effect. If you regularly use this tool, seedlings will improve immunity to common diseases and temperature changes. 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 containing 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. During the use of Epin, 100 ml of solution is consumed for each bush.

Hom

Hom is a rather effective remedy against phytophthora.It has a wide spectrum of action and, therefore, it can be used to 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 refuse the use of Homa during flowering.

If you are fighting phytophthora with the help of Homa, then you need to think about precautions. During the creation of the working fluid and spraying the bushes, a person must have personal protective equipment. His eyes and skin must be protected from liquid ingress. Rubber gloves, respirators and special goggles for eye protection should be prepared in advance.

Fully securing 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 is added to it.When spraying, do not use too much mixture. About a liter of the prepared solution is consumed per 10 square meters.

Trichopolum

Sometimes the fight against late blight of potatoes is carried out with the help of Trichopolum 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 make your own liquid for processing potato bushes, you will have to dilute 15-20 tablets of medicine in 10 liters of water. The created mixture is not stored for a long time and therefore it must be used up immediately after preparation. For spraying, it is better to choose sunny days, as in rainy weather the mixture will be washed off the leaves. It is necessary to deal with the processing of bushes regularly, every ten days.

How to deal with late blight on potatoes with folk remedies

Sometimes chemicals 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 her help.

To prepare a medicinal tincture, you will need to chop 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 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 must be repeated after 15 days.

Tinder fungus

Also, preparations made from wood tinder fungus are good for the treatment of the disease. In order to create effective folk remedies for phytophthora from it, you should dry the collected mushrooms a little. Then they are finely chopped with a knife and crushed 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. The solution is then filtered and used to process potato bushes.

Prophylaxis of the disease with tinder fluid is carried out during the formation of the fruit. Spray infected plants once a week.

Copper vitriol

The emerging disease can be eliminated with copper sulphate. However, before using copper sulfate, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of preparing a working solution.To do this, add 100-120 grams of the substance to five liters of cold water and mix everything well. Then 150 grams of slaked lime is added to the mixture.

The solution does not have a long shelf life and should be used within five hours of preparation. About 200 ml of solution should be spent on each bush. After 2-3 treatments, a film will begin to appear on the potato leaves, 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 to 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.