Maine Potato growers battle late blight

July 25, 2009
Rob Johanson drove down a dirt path along a 5-acre field of potato plants and pointed to a scorched hole in the middle.

Plants surrounding the burned earth were spindly with brown, irregular spots on their leaves from late blight fungus.

Maine farmers have reported late blight -- an airborne, spore-based disease -- in potato and tomato crops. The plant disease, responsible for the Irish potato famine of the 1850s, can destroy a crop and thrives in cool, moist weather.

Johanson's farmhands walked the fields with backpack propane burners destroying diseased plants covered in lesions.

"All this would be in bloom, all purple flowers,"Johanson said waving his hand out the window as he drove by. "But the plants have been pretty beat up. We were trying to save them. It spreads from one leaf to the next and, eventually, to the stem, and kills the whole plant.

Martin Draper, a senior plant pathologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the rate of infection has been "explosive."

The disease has spread to every state in the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic.

Like to receive news like this by email? Join and Subscribe!
Join Our Telegram Channel for regular updates!
Sponsored Content
PEI potato producer looks to Harvest Insights Tech for greater visibility of shrink
July 10, 2024

PEI potato producer looks to Harvest Insights Tech for greater visibility of shrink

Machine-Learning driven crop insights tool HarvestEye has partnered with one of Prince Edward Island’s (PEI) prominent potato growers, G Visser & Sons.
Eruopa: incertidumbre productiva y de mercado
July 09, 2024

Europa: incertidumbre productiva y de mercado

Los países productores del norte de Europa enfrenta a un tiempo dificultades climatológicas para producir, así como también incertidumbres de mercado por presiones de competidores a nivel global.
SV Agri teams up with Lightsmith Group backed by US State Department and Nordic Development Fund, to Foster Sustainable Potato Cultivation in Assam and Bihar
July 07, 2024

SV Agri teams up with Lightsmith Group and Nordic Development Fund to Foster Sustainable Potato Cultivation in Assam and Bihar

Siddhi Vinayak Agri Processing Pvt Ltd (SV Agri) recently spearheaded a pivotal stakeholder consultation workshop on May 15 and 16, 2024.
Sponsored Content