Wilting potatoes

13 years ago

Several of my potato plants are wilting. They are not together--sort of every other one in a small section of two rows. One row is red; the other is white. Adjacent plants are doing fine. All are "hilled" with wheat straw. I have examined the leaves on both wilting and non-wilting plants and do not see any insect infestation. All have been regularly rained upon; no supplemental water.

Anyone got any ideas?

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Comments (8)

sweetquietplace
13 years ago
This is happening to my potatoes also. Really weird. Usually it's just one sprout of the plant. I've had a lot more rain this year than usual, and I'm wondering if the soil is too soggy for them.
wolverine1012
Original Author
13 years ago
I may have found the problem, but I have no idea of the cure. Today I pulled the wilting plants and happened to notice some white worms about 3/8 to 1/2 inch long and about 1/16 inch in diameter crawling around stem at the point it had been in the ground. On two of the stems I discovered a hole below ground level and when I slit open the stem, the whole inside had been eaten out and was occupied by these worms. I'm going to try to take a picture to post, but they are so small.
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galiana
13 years ago
European corn borer? Despite the name, they do infect potatoes as well, usually by burrowing into the stems, as you mentioned. I'm not sure if it is or not based on the size measurements you gave. Take a look online to see if the pictures match up to what you've got.
mckenziek
13 years ago
How big is the hole below ground level? Sounds like gophers to me.
wolverine1012
Original Author
13 years ago
Nope. Not gophers. I should have made it more clear that the hole was in the stem at a point that would have been under the ground. The hole in the stem was about 1/8 to 1/4 inches in diameter. Unforunately, by the time I had charged the battery to my camera, the worms were gone, so I have no picture.
mckenziek
13 years ago
After re-reading, it is fairly clear. I just have gophers on the brain. I have so many of them.

--McKenzie
wolverine1012
Original Author
13 years ago
I guess that I'll never know what the worms were. They were nowhere near as big as any corn borer that I have ever seen. They were about the size of 1/4" to 3/8" long pieces of spaghetti and they were white. I guess that it could have been the larvae of some moth.

None of the other vines seem to be affected, so maybe I should just count my blessings. I'm just wondering, though, if there's some type of prophalactic treatment that could be given to the rest. What do you do for vine boring pests?
galiana
13 years ago
Spinosad has worked for me with various borers (including squash vine borer), in conjunction with digging as many as possible out of the vine with a bent pin.

Spray spinosad in early morning or late evening, as it can do harm to day-flying beneficials as well as the baddies.