pull volunteer potato plants?

[tjg911]

this is a question about late blight.

last summer the east was hit hard by late blight. all my tomato plants developed it starting on 7/9 and by labor day the last tomato plants were pulled. last summer i happened to have 4 or 5 volunteer "all blue" potato plants that grew that were missed from the 2008 season. those potato plants grew next to the tomato plants and never showed any signs of late blight tho all my tomato plants clearly were infected. i carefully dug the potatoes when the plants died and i thought i was very through to not miss any because late blight can over winter in infected tubers.

obviously i missed some potatoes because 1 week ago i saw a potato plant has emerged! yesterday i saw a second plant. should i dig these up and put them into the trash on the chance they may have late blight from last year? or is that not likely as all the potatoes i did find looked fine and all the potato plants had normal healthy foliage so i am assuming they were not infected by late blight?

i really am concerned late blight will resurface again if for no other reason potatoes can be missed and it can over winter in infected tubers.

tom

[kath]

Definitely get rid of them - don't take any chances. I've pulled at least 6 volunteers from my garden already. I think that the late blight strain last year was one that had a worse affect on tomatoes than potatoes, but any living tissue that survived the winter could be a potential problem. Better to start with fresh seed potato, for sure!

[tjg911]

thanks that's how i felt, better safe than sorry. i noticed 3 more today! since they are sprouting amidst the lettuce plants i'll dig them out when the lettuce is ready to be replaced.

[kath]

I'd keep an eye on them and watch for any signs of spores if not pulling them right away.