Wednesday, February 19, 2014

tuber issues

when i checked on the early blue potatoes before i left for work this morning i found curled leaves...in the zea family curled leaves is a sure sign of a need for immediate watering and potatoes are moderately heavy users of water...particularly when setting tubers ( which these are not doing right now...sill days to go before they start ) i watered them thoroughly and left...when i got home an checked some of the leaves had indeed uncurled...unfortunately just as many had yellowed badly...a sure sign of over-watering...so i pulled off the yellowed leaves...they will never be green again, they will simply retain moisture until they die and fall off, i just preempted that...and threw them in the compost bucket...so now what? i turned on a fan to circulate air and dry things out and i am scurrying around looking for answers...there is till new growth at the tops of the plants and the upper leaves are not yellowed...they aren't all uncurled either...no aphids or visible pests...a fungus? perhaps...or maybe just a peculiarity of outdoor plant being grown to maturity in a basement under broad spectrum lights...any and all possibilities beyond not enough water are on the table yet...this does not please me one bit...however the early blue in the other pots and the yeme de huevos ( bottom photo ) all seem to be doing fine..it is the taller of the early blue that are behaving oddly...here's hoping there is a positive result...but failure is still an option...more as this develops. 6:43 p.m. turns out it is TOO MUCH moisture, not too little...humidity is up in the basement...fans all around...more as it occurs.

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