One of the other plotholders warned me this morning that we have blight at the allotments. Apparently everyone has it. He said it was due to the humid weather that followed all that rain.

So I found a slot today to go and check my spuds (Desiree maincrop). I pulled off one haulm and showed it to him.....most leaves were a crispy brown or a soggy yellow. He identified it as blight but said it might not necessarily have got to the tubers yet. So I dug up one plants worth to see.
This was the haul from one tuber! 5 pounds 2 1/4 ounces. Not a sign of blight!!!!! Malcolm said they were"b****y beautiful" and showed me his sorry harvest....half the size and two thirds had blight.

So I am very pleased with my plot. It may be shady, but it does grow beautiful spuds. As I mainly wanted it for root crops I am quite satisfied.

As a precaution, at Malcolm's suggestion, I have cut off all the haulms at 3 inches and taken them to the communal bonfire. I will leave the tubers in the ground for the time being as I am too busy this week to do anything else with them. Malcolm suggests that I might want to lift and store them, but I had planned to leave them in the ground until I need them....digging up one or two plants a week all winter. I already have the sacks but am not sure what would be best now that blight has struck. I don't need the ground for anything else....I have some cabbage plants coming along but I have plenty of room for them. So they could be left. Any suggestions anyone?

My freezer came today. It is only 6 cu ft but will quadruple my present freezer capacity, so hopefully it'll be sufficient for my surplus crops. I plan to blanch and pack little and often....when cooking dinner probably....as the crops are steadily producing more than we can eat (not this week though...I have visitors....two teenaged boys with hollow legs!!! I am filling them up with good veg.)