News on Potato Defects and Diseases from the United States

The J.R. Simplot Company is pleased that the USDA has deregulated the Russet Burbank variety of the second generation of Innate™ potatoes. Simplot is looking forward to the completion of the EPA registration and FDA consultation before the second generation of Innate™ potatoes can be introduced into the marketplace.

A new 'Focus on Potato' webcast titled “Managing Diseases with Biopesticides in Potato Production” helps growers, consultants, and other practitioners in the potato industry understand the basics of biopesticides and their use in the field.

Late blight has become widespread in Idaho and is called the worst Idaho late blight outbreak since 1998.

The latest Focus on Potato webcast, titled “Best Management Tactics and Fungicide Resistance in Early Blight and Brown Spot” highlights the importance of measures to mitigate fungicide resistance, particularly when applied and repeatedly used on a single site.

The National Potato Council awards its 2015-16 Academic Scholarship to Shunping Ding, a PhD. student in Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer has urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to prioritize the replacement and modernization of the Federal Nematode Quarantine Facility at Cornell University in the Agricultural Research Service’s (ARS) Capitol Investment Strategy for Fiscal Year 2016.

A group of 18 Idaho Potato farmers that say they have been negatively affected by the Pale Cyst Nematode (PCN) program filed an administrative lawsuit against the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Idaho State Department of Agriculture on Tuesday.

Potato farming brothers Aaron Johnson of Northwood and Derek Johnson of Vancouver, B.C., will spend time in federal prison in the Federal Prison Camp in Duluth, Minn., and are jointly responsible for restitution of nearly $1 million because of crop insurance fraud.

Of the more than 100 diseases of potato, bacterial ring rot is one of the few zero-tolerance pests. If just one seed potato on a farm is found to have this disease, no seed on that farm can be certified.

Levels of zebra chip, a crop disease in potatoes spread by potato psyllids and caused by the Liberibacter bacterium, were down signficiantly in the Pacific Northwest.

Officials with Idaho’s pale cyst nematode eradication program say they’ve discovered three more infested fields totaling 994 acres since October, including two fields that had previously been deregulated from the program.

El tizón tardío de la papa puede ser controlado con varias estrategias, incluyendo la resistencia del huesped. Desafortunadamente, los esfuerzos hasta la fecha para utilizarla han llevado a un éxito limitado. Este es el tema principal del artículo escrito por G. A. Forbes; M. Huarte para la Revista Latinoamericana de la Papa, Volumen 18 (2), 2014.

Key Technology introduces hyperspectral imaging on its popular ADR® 5 automatic defect removal system for potato strips to detect and remove sugar ends.

Growers of the potato variety Lamoka used for chip processing have seen a higher than normal incidence of blackleg in their fields this summer.

Phosphorous acid based products can be an effective control for postharvest diseases when applying best practices. In the presentation. Learn more in the latest ‘Focus on Potato’ presentation “Phosphorous Acid and its use in Potato Post-Harvest Situations,”

In a study published this summer, scientists of the Washington State University found that potato virus S (PVS) breaks down late blight resistance in potato.

While weed resistance issues have been grabbing many headlines over the past few years, fungicide resistance has become an increasingly important issue this growing season—and likely for future growing seasons if sound resistance management practices are not adopted.

Continued wet August weather has caused late blight infections to proliferate throughout Eastern Idaho, according to University of Idaho Extension potato pathologist Phil Nolte.