My potato leaves have dark greasy looking patches that are spreading fast, with a whitish growth on the underside in the morning, and the whole plant is collapsing. The weather is cool and damp with fog. What disease is this and how urgent is it?
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Dark greasy fast spreading patches with a white mould on the leaf underside in cool damp foggy weather are late blight, the most destructive disease of potato, and it is urgent because it can destroy a field in days. Act immediately. If no disease is present yet but the weather is favourable, apply a protectant fungicide such as mancozeb or chlorothalonil as a preventive. Once you see active spots, switch to a systemic or translaminar fungicide such as cymoxanil plus mancozeb, dimethomorph or a metalaxyl based mix, and repeat as per label since the disease moves fast. Remove and destroy badly hit plants, avoid overhead irrigation, and earth up well so spores do not wash down to the tubers. Do not delay even one or two days in blight weather. Since potatoes are stored and eaten, follow the label dose and pre-harvest interval, and follow your KVK or state advisory which often issues blight alerts.
In our area the KVK sends a blight alert when the foggy weather sets in. The year I sprayed preventively before symptoms I lost almost nothing.
It really does move in days. I waited a weekend once and half the field was gone by Monday. Never wait again.
Good earthing up protected my tubers even where the foliage got hit. Worth doing properly.