Scab Resistant Potatoes

This year I decided to test the claim that the Russet Burbank variety is scab resistant by planting them in a garden that had a bad case of potato scab last year. If you have this problem, I think you'll like the results!
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[@MinkesMom]

An Old Timer told me... when he was a boy, his family put mackerel in a barrel of water & sealed it 'till the following Spring. Stunk, for sure, & it was the boys' chore to spread the brew onto the potato beds. His family had the best tasting potatoes in the county. Going mackerel fishing now for smoked mackerel & my new fish tub.

[@maritimegardening4887]

I was doing the same last weekend. Man I love Mackerel!

[@MinkesMom]

It is not fishing around here, but 'Catching' as we land 5 at a time & more on the next quick cast. The most fun was fishing next to a herring carrier dumping out the scales. Heaven for a fisher person.

[@chris9282]

Love your videos and your energy and passion towards gardening. You cost me 23,000 dollars lol. Since I started binge watching your videos and decided to convert my garden to permaculture I went out and bought a bunch of cow manure and huge hay bails to get started. Then they dumped the two dump truck loads in the wrong spot so I decided to go buy a brand new Kioti tractor to move it. I can't wait till next spring.

[@maritimegardening4887]

My goodness - I'm all about saving money! Every year I always get more out of my garden than I ever put in. I hope it all works out for you! :)

[@gp1644]

Last year (2021) was the first year I grew potatoes, and I did so in bags. I had a terrific crop and no scab. It was a wet growing season. This year, I also few potatoes in bags, and it was such a dry season that we were restricted and no allowed to water in August. The potato harvest has been bad and I have scab. I also had put in a new raised bed at the end of the season 2021 in order to plant garlic. In July of this year I harvested a beautiful amount of hardneck garlic with no problem, but some salad turnips I also planted in the same bed are loaded with scab. So I am at a loss about whether I should use that raised bed, as I was planning to plant garlic again in October. I am planning to try Russet Burbank potatoes next year, again in bags, to see if they will be scab free.

[@eldonelder7254]

Another excellent video. I notice you said you wouldn't want to till in wood chips. I grew this years potato crop in a mixture comprised mostly of 3 year old wood chips, hay, and leaves and, so far, the potatoes have been beautiful. The largest component of the mix was the wood chips (spruce I think). So far I've only dug up Red Norland potatoes and they were big, firm, and clean. The first hill had 23 potatoes: 4 about the size of a large grapefruit, 8 the size of large golfballs, and the rest were orange size. A small amount of well rotted cow manure was sprinkled over the top of the soil mix last fall too. After I harvested them I raked back the remaining hay mulch then raked the rotted compost/soil mix below level in preparation for a layer of well rotted horse manure to be added when I can get some this fall. Then I'll cover it all with hay for the winter and let the worms do the rest of the work. I find the manure makes all the difference in how well and how fast the rest of the compostables break down.

[@maritimegardening4887]

If tilling in the woodchips did not have a negative effect, it's because you had enough nitrogen in your soil to balance off what they took out.

[@booswalia]

I grew Russet Burbanks last year. They were huge and very little scab.

[@smhollanshead]

I believe you about your last year’s potato harvest. So, potato variety matters. I also like your idea about adding sulfur to the soil. I also agree with your decision making. It is much less intrusive to change the variety of potatoes than to add sulfur in the soil. My perception is you can change the variety, namely Burbank Russet, add sulfur to the soil, or you could do both. I find many plants like acidic soil, such as potatoes and tomatoes.

[@stephendaurie9344]

having a severe scab problem for the past 10 years, tried scab-resistant varieties some years with no scab other years the potatoes are uneditable, tried many different things to prevent it thinking about giving up growing them completely

[@maritimegardening4887]

Keep trying.

[@jackicomber8534]

Awesome as usual! I will be around tomorrow for my taters!

[@amandamcreynolds8904]

A fantastic potato variety is Sieglinde. I've grown it on the west coast, don't know if you can get it on the east coast. I got them from West Coast Seeds.

[@MinkesMom]

Potato Beetles! This summer started out terrible again with the beetles, decimating my potato plants even with me plucking bugs & eggs from the beginning. 13 bags of seed potatoes did not help. Capt. Jack's organic spray from eBay immediately stopped all the potato beetles & white moths from attacking my garden! So inexpensive in a hand sprayer. Luv the stuff!!!

[@maritimegardening4887]

A fascinating product! I'll have to look into it.

[@MinkesMom]

I can not say enough about Capt. Jack's after battling potato beetles, white moths & broccoli flea-like bugs. And a small amount in a sprayer lasts for days on a large (25K+) garden. An excellent value for me. Wish I had known about it years ago.

[@DavidMFChapman]

I grew Russet Burbank in my containers and they set tubers at multiple levels as I added shredded leaves. But many turned out peanut shaped and none were very big.

[@maritimegardening4887]

Try growing them in the ground next time if you have the space.

[@michelemarble6799]

Very informative video. I have grown many different varieties the last two years and have had a major problem with scab with some and not others. Here is an interesting thing. I planted one of my purple potatoes that was hit bad with scab in a container to see if the potatoes it produced would have scab. I harvested them when the tops were dying but not dead. The potatoes were fine. Interesting don't you think. I will agree. My white and light skins had some scab and I used no manure on any of my potatoes. My russets were fine. But light skinned potatoes nearby were affected. How do you get rid of the bacteria from the soil?

[@maritimegardening4887]

My guess is that ther was none of the scab bacteria in the pot soil, and what little bit that was on the potatoes had not populated the soil enough to affect the second crop; that or the soil was acidic. There's no reason using a pot would have any effect.

[@eldonelder7254]

I grew purple potatoes for the second time this season and I'm not going to bother again. I, too, have had a weird scabby skin on the few I've dug so far which is a real turn-off. I'll know more when the tops die off and I dig up the whole patch of them. I had the same problem the first time I grew them 2 years ago as well. Other than the novelty of having purple potatoes it isn't worth it to me to grow them again if I'm going to continue to have this problem. Lesson learned. I do have good luck with banana potatoes though and I really like the quality of them. They store much better than the literature told me they would too. I haven't harvested this years crop of them yet so I'll know in a few weeks if they've continued to be a reliable spud. We had drought here in Eastern Ontario, Canada, zone 5a .

[@maritimegardening4887]

You gotta go with what works!

[@joannthompson765]

Thats for update

[@TheMudDragon]

Where can I find Russet Burbanks to plant? I'd need to buy some, I believe my soil has a start of scabs in it. Thank you!

[@maritimegardening4887]

I buy mine from veseys seeds - what country are you in?

[@TheMudDragon]

@@maritimegardening4887 I'm from Canada

[@richiesun9676]

Just dug up two containers with light potato scab. I wanna reuse the same soil from the container to grow more. Is that advisable?

[@maritimegardening4887]

It's advisable if you're not growing potatoes in it - or plant to grow scab resistant potatoes - or if you add some sulfur to the soil in the container (to raise the pH) to grow potatoes.

[@richiesun9676]

@@maritimegardening4887 not sure where I'd get scab resistant seed potatoes at this time. Late in the season. I was thinking of adding peat and lowering the PH and see if I can grow new potatoes as an experiment. I have some reds that have been sprouting.

[@leegarner4111]

You had quite a crop there.Did you have any frost damage?

[@maritimegardening4887]

No, I think I just barely escaped the recent frost here.