Check on your potato foliage regularly - looking for signs of blight.

It is not unusual to find plots on your allotment site that have potato foliage with blemishes on. However, if the blemishes are signs of blight then you need to take steps to stop it spreading or from ruining your potatoes. At the first sign of blight on your potato leaves you need to remove the foliage and place it in rubbish sacks. You cannot safely compost blight infected leaves or potatoes or leave them on the vegetable plot.  If you do not dispose of the infected leaves correctly you may be 'storing up problems' for the future.

One of the first steps to take is to remove and correctly dispose of the foliage. That is do not compost any of the potato leaves or stems take care to bag it and bin it or alternatively burn it.

The link given here gives lots of information about 'what potato blight is' 'how to deal with it' and how to stop it from causing more problems to yourself and others.

Link for information about potato blight at www.potato.org.uk

Here are some of the signs to look for when checking potatoes for blight.

• Brown freckly marks on the leaves -can be an early sign, or brown patches.
• The brown patches on foliage may have a yellowish border 
• If the potato plants tubers become infected by blight you will notice dark patches on the potato skin.
• As the disease progresses in the potato tuber it will show brownish rotting.
• Eventually the potato tubers affected by blight turn into a stinky rotting pulpy mess.

Most blight advice follows the lines of  -
removing foliage
dispose of foliage safely.
Wait until the spores of blight on the soil are not likely to affect potato tubers as you harvest them.
Once harvested check regularly any potatoes you have harvested and stored.
Reason - (One bad potato stored in a sack or bag can spread through the whole batch.)