This was a huge disappointment. I finally got Irish Potatoes to grow beautifully this year by starting in January and keeping the soil very dry by using lots of perlite and hand watering. Ants were crawling all over and eating the plants until they killed them. So I dumped a pot out to find that my potatoes all looked like this.
Gene McAvoy, our 5-county UF/IFAS Veggie Agent confirmed that this is
fire ant damage in my Irish Potatoes. Specifically Yukon Gold variety. He said that this is "one of the problems of container culture. In addition it's
very dry and there's not much for [fire ants] to eat right now."
He recommended Clinch - (abamectin) and Extinguish Professional (not Extinguish PLUS) - ((S)-methoprene) to be used between the pots for my potato crops. Both stop production of NEW fire ants by sterilizing the queen. No new workers are produced so the colony eventually declines and dies. In addition, Clinch slowly kills the ants that eat the bait. Extinguish is is toxic to fish and should not be applied before rain. As always, read the label, wear protective clothing, gloves, mask, glasses.
My problem is that both come in a 25 lb bag which will last me a lifetime then some.
