News on Phytophthora from the United States

Much of Maine's seed potato supply for this year is infected with blight, and the state has asked the federal government for an emergency exemption to make an effective but expensive toxic seed treatment available to growers.

More than a decade has passed since Jim Tiede was among the growers caught up in a debacle over the first U.S. genetically modified potato variety. Even today, the American Falls, Idaho, farmer copes with the fallout of planting Monsanto's GM potato N...

Potato late blight, that same disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine, resurfaced in Alaska this fall. This wasn’t the first time the disease, widespread in the Lower 48 and worldwide, came to Alaska. Plant pathologist Jenifer McBeath suspects it...

Late blight has shown up in the fields of two potato producers, in Palmer and Delta Junction. Alaska. The University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service is working with major potato producers to help prevent the spread.

A new USDA-funded consortium will provide nationwide tracking of late blight infections of potato and tomato.  A web site currently under development will allow users to report where late blight has been found, and to sign up for automatic notifications by email or text message when late blight is found nearby.

Given that world potato production is about 320 million tons per year (20 million tons per year in the United States) and world tomato production is about 120 million tons per year (13 million tons per year in the U.S.), late blight is a major problem worldwide even today.

Research by Professor Manuel Ospina-Giraldo on Phytophthora Infestans - the organism that caused the Irish Potato Famine - is being funded as part of a $999,900 “Education in Genomics-Based Microbial Forensics” grant from the United States Department of Agriculture.

La investigación realizada por el profesor Manuel Ospina Giraldo sobre el organismo que causó la hambruna de la papa en Irlanda, será financiada por el Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos (USDA), a través de una subvención de US$ 999.900 ...

Despite hot dry weather, Late Blight was found in a field in northern Walsh County in northeast North Dakota late last week.This is in addition to finds in Dickey County in southeast North Dakota and in the Carberry and Carman areas of southern Manitob...

Potato late blight has been found and confirmed in the south Columbia Basin and Washington State University plant pathologist Dennis Johnson says more confirmations of the disease are expected this week. He says the disease was found in two locations. ...

Worldwide, late blight is rated the worst of potato diseases. Intermittently since the 1990s, spores have turned up in commercial fields of Idaho, Washington, California and Oregon. When the spore is present it reproduces like a wildfire in cool, mois...

Potatoes are America’s number one vegetable crop. Per capita, Americans consume about 130 pounds annually.

Many readers are no doubt aware of last summer's late-blight infestation, in which a fungus, Phytophthora infestans, decimated local tomato and potato plantings. The fungus overwinters in southeastern United States but does not generally overwinter in ...

The impact of late blight to potato growers in Michigan is clear and we estimate that many growers with crops going in to long-term storage will spend up to $350/A in crop protection products alone (not including application costs). Even such intense c...

Farmers in southern and central Maine have already reported cases of late blight in potato and tomato crops. Now the disease has spread to northern Maine.

Maine potato growers are thriving thanks to a late blight spraying advice offered by the University of Maine's cooperative extension program.