On one potato plant, the leaves just don't unfurl and grow anymore. They just stay small and tightly furled, even though the stem grows.
Several are like this, but only the ones from the store-bought potatoes I planted. The All Blue potatoes, that I got as seed potatoes, are doing much better, even though they're in the same patch.
A possibly less fuzzy picture. What's causing this? I sprayed some Neem oil on the plants a couple days ago, in case it was a bug. Had no effect.
This is one of the All Blue potato plants, that I grew from a bona fide seed potato. No problems here.
So what could be causing this? And I have to wonder what's going on below ground and how it's going to affect my potato harvest.
It is hard to say. The fact that it is only on your grocery potatoes could very very well mean that you introduced one of the many potato diseases to your plot. That is why there is a warning in every agricultural bulletin to plant only certified disease free stock.
http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/plantsci/hortcrop/pp756w.htm
Hmmm....wonder if it is just a trait of the particular kind of potato. Since they were store-bought I doubt you really know the name of them (other than a red or white spud), eh?
The plants don't look unhealthy to me; no signs of wilting, leaf disease or fungus. I'd just let them be and see how they produce.
Shoe.
With the fuzzy pic and my monitor it is hard to tell, but it looks to me like it might just be a cluster of flowers before they open. I had some reds that looked very similar to that, fuzzy green little balls, that grew taller and taller till the flowers opened. I thought at first that they were deformed leaves from leaf rollers or something, till i got down low and tore one open. Then again, might be the fuzzy pic... Let us know what becomes of them.
When I was a kid, we never bothered with seed potatoes. Whatever potatoes came from the store we cut up and planted. We did all right.
And I had potatoes ordered, but after a couple months it was clear that the company wasn't going to send them to me. I did eventually get some all blue sets from another company, but I didn't get them into the ground until way into June.
Seed potatoes only from now on! (And let that be a lesson to you, kids!)
I can't remember how potato flowers form. The store bought potatoes are 2-3 weeks older than the blue seed potatoes, so they're further along in their growth.
Since I don't see any bugs or other signs of disease, I guess I will do just that and let them be for right now. I supposed I could always take the surgical option and cut those stems off and let the plant continue growing from side stems.
