A fungus that could seriously damage Manitoba's multimillion-dollar commercial potato industry has been spotted at commercial nurseries, Manitoba Agriculture says.
The provincial agency has issued a warning to residential gardeners after "late blight"was found on tomato seedlings at several retail locations in Winnipeg and Brandon, and home gardeners need to take the warning seriously, said Dwayne Friesen of Lacoste Garden Centre.
Experts such as Ian Wishart at Keystone Agricultural Producers and Ken Land of St. Mary's Nursery and Garden Centre said the fungus can easily spread to potatoes.
"If it becomes widespread across the province, by the time we harvest them … and put it into potato storage where it is very warm and wet, it literally spreads like wildfire and the stored potatoes just melt,"Wishart said.
Land pointed out that "somebody walking through a garden will pick it up and everywhere they walk after that, they're dropping little deposits of the blight behind."
