PotatoPotatoe
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Joined: Sun May 28, 2017 7:02 pm
Location: New South Wales, Australia

Natural Way To Deal With Potato Disease (Rhizoctonia)?

Hey Helpful Gardener forum-goers! Long-time lurker, gardening wannabe, and first-time poster here.

Kinda wish it was somewhere other than the plant disease forum, but hey! So, up 'til noqw my vege garderns have been fine. My own inexperience aside, stuff has grown pretty well, and I've been super happy with the resuts. Until now. Recently I've started to notice black marks appearing on the potatoes that I've pulled so far.

At first I thought it might just be dirt / dried mud stuck to them (have had a lot of rain recently), but after poking around a bit and doing some searching I'm now worried it might be Rhizoctonia (spelling?). Looks very similar to this:

Image
Source

The black marks are pretty stubborn, and definitely aren't dirt (I wish they were!). It's a little too early to tell if anything else is wrong with them. None of the other telltale signs have popped up just yet. But I'd rather be safe than sorry!

Keen to hear if anyone else has dealt with this before. And, more importantly, whether anyone has any natural methods for dealing with / treating this? I've kinda resigned myself to this batch not pulling through, but I'd like to do something to save the next lot before I plant them if possible!

Thanks in advance

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applestar
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Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Ha. I was trying to remember where I had seen that potato disease mentioned before -- I found it! :-()

I actually didn't buy from the website this year, but I have in the past and have found them to be reliable with good service. I haven't had the occasion to try these products but had bookmarked this for future reference. You might be able to find equivalent products in your country.
Myco Seed Treat - Soil Amendments & Inoculants - The Maine Potato Lady
https://www.mainepotatolady.com/product ... ategory=80

Myco Seed Treat
Our Products: Soil Inoculants > Myco Seed Treat
We’ve been using Myco Seed Treat for several years to help control Rhizoctonia or "Black Scurf” and other soil diseases on our potatoes. This past season we used it with Actinovate (see below) and have seen greatly improved control. MST combines plant-friendly fungi, including Mycorrhizae and bacteria, in a dry nutrient package.



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