By Joanairey
Middlesex, United Kingdom
I grew potatoes for the first time last year. I got a reasonable crop but a lot of the pots were 'marbles.' I have just harvested this year's crop of Maris Piper and Charolotte. Few 'marbles' but a number of the pots have brown spots. It comes off if you scrub but so does the skin. Any idea what this is? I hope that by peeling them - and I don't usually peel pots - they will be OK. Regret for some reason I cannot attach a photo as it says it is too big. Hope the above is enough to go on.
- 27 Jul, 2016
Answers
Charlotte is a second early and a salad potato; Maris Piper is a maincrop so I would suggest that you need to leave them longer for the tops to begin to die down. As far as the scab is concerned, you could lower the ph (greater acidity), by perhaps lining the trenches or planting holes with your first couple of grass mowings.
28 Jul, 2016
Thanks for all three responses.
Johnny, you seem to have a thing about peach pips! I got them as tubers from a garden centre.
Jimmy, I actually grew the pots in containers and the foliage has died down together so I harvested them at the same time.
It is difficult to know whether the scab affected one type rather than the other.
Thanks for the reference, Moon.
28 Jul, 2016
You don't normally have to peel the whole potato - you should be able to just scrape off the scabby bits with the back of the potato peeler.
29 Jul, 2016
Thanks Steragram. I will try this.
30 Jul, 2016
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Hi Joan and welcome to GoY, what you have is probably potato scab, take a look at the link below. The potatoes are still edible but you do need to remove the scabbed bits.
http://www.planetnatural.com/pest-problem-solver/plant-disease/potato-scab/
28 Jul, 2016