Kansas City Blog

A potato with late blight.

Anyone who has been to Ireland learns very quickly not to refer to the "potato famine" as such. The Irish consider that miserable time in their country's history to have been caused mostly by the English and prefer the name "Great Famine" or "Great Hunger."

(Also: Don't go asking for a black and tan as you'll end up meeting members of the IRA. Ask for a half-and-half instead.)

Besides the English, the biggest culprit in the hunger was phytophthora infestans, a fungal disease more commonly known as late blight. And for reasons still unknown, it's started to show up in U.S. gardens already this year. As the name suggests, late blight usually occurs near the harvest in September and October -- it's never shown up this early in the growing season.

And it seems to be moving in the Midwest's direction.
It was first spotted in Maryland in early June and by the end of the month, cases had been reported in Ohio. It grows best in wet, cool conditions and while this summer has certainly been wet, that wonderful July and August Kansas heat should hopefully be enough to keep it from spreading here. 

Late blight also affects tomatoes, which is where the real concern is now. Ohio is the third-largest tomato producing state (it's the state fruit and tomato juice is the state beverage) and while the disease has only been seen in home gardens, there's a big risk it will spread to commercial farms, especially organic farms which can't use many pesticides.

Since most home gardeners have no experience with late blight, officials are trying to get the word out about what it looks like. In potatoes, it causes deep brown, sunken lesions that go beneath the surface. On green tomatoes, it causes similar lesions that resemble leather. 

Ohio State University has put together a fact sheet of symptoms. Ask who anyone who has ever been to one of Ireland's famine museums -- English or no English, late blight should not be taken lightly.

(Image via Flickr: Ben Millet)