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The UK government has stepped up its efforts to control the potato disease ring rot.

This week , the potato variety Sarpo Mira was named Plant of the week in the British Newspaper "The Guardian"

No sooner does the risk of importing exotic diseases such as dickeya in seed potatoes appear to be receding than another potential source of harm to the health of the UK crop has reared its head.

While recent rain should help boost protective soil intake by harvesters, the risk of potato bruising remains high, potato agronomists and machinery makers are warning.

Plant breeding business KWS marked its formal entry into potato breeding in the UK last week, with a demonstration of up-and-coming varieties and an outline of its key breeding objectives for the potato crop.

Researchers led by Professor Bruce Fitt, now at the University of Hertfordshire, have used modern DNA techniques on late nineteenth-century potatoes to show how the potato blight may have survived between cropping seasons after the Irish potato famine ...

The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute and CAFRE, Greenmount Campus have issued a further potato blight warning.

With bacterial disease blackleg posing a threat to Scottish seed potato crops for a second consecutive season, there was advice at Potatoes in Practice on managing the risk of spread during haulm destruction.

Wet weather is once again favouring blackleg development in Scottish seed potato crops, although disease levels are believed currently to be below the record levels seen in 2011.

The application of oils has the potential to assist in the control of non-persistent viruses in potato seed crops. However, more work is required to establish the effects on seed crops.

A scheme to clear fields in Northern Ireland of potato wart disease has been hailed as a success.

One of the scourges of the potato crop – blight – has now been found in all the major growing areas of Scotland, with infestation levels running well ahead of average.

Potato growers are facing many weather-related challenges and recent warm, wet weather has led to a massive increase in the number of Smith Periods this year so far, says Potato Council executive and blight specialist Gary Collins.

Dutch tests on a new strain of potato blight similar to that discovered for the first time in the UK last year have shown some isolates have reduced sensitivity to the common active fluazinam used to control the disease.

Potato crops in Britain are facing high blight pressure this season, demanding the best possible protection under extremely challenging application conditions.

Bayer CropScience will have two new products available for potato growers in two to three years' time, subject to approval.

The blight fungicide containing Initium and dimethomorph, Zampro DM, has had reduction of tuber blight incidence added to its label, in addition to the control of late foliar blight.

Rhizoctonia is running rife in cold, wet potato seedbeds and hampering crop emergence this season.