News on Potato Defects and Diseases from the United States

The federal government is providing $109,000 for the University of Idaho to study an emerging plant disease the school says “poses a substantial threat to the state’s potato industry.” The money will be used to monitor potato fields for the presence o...

Northwest agriculture researchers in the US say they are finding more cases of a zebra chip disease in the region’s potatoes.

According to a report from Michigan State University, Botrytis blight is causing problems in potatoes throughout Michigan this season.

While other potato growers use preventative insecticide applications to protect their crops from a new disease to the Pacific Northwest, called zebra chip, Fred Brossy can only wait and see if it hits him.

Home gardeners and commercial growers are alerted of the potential introduction of late blight this growing season, as it has been confirmed in Suffolk County.

Liberibacter, the bacterium responsible for zebra chip, has been found in an Idaho potato field.

Do potato psyllids migrate from one location to the next, starting in northern Mexico and moving northward as the potato season progresses, or are psyllid populations local?

The University of Idaho extension today announced that the potato psyllids found last month in Idaho tentatively tested positive for Liberibacter, Zebra Chip disease.

Two adult potato psyllids were found on yellow sticky cards that were collected June 19 from a Twin Falls County potato field, according to an alert issued Tuesday by University of Idaho Extension staff.

Late blight has not been reported in North Dakota, Minnesota or Manitoba. With the fair weather, late blight severity values are unchanged since Friday.

Late blight, the same disease that caused Ireland's potato famine in the 19th century, was confirmed in three Pennsylvania counties last week.

Researchers recommend potato growers in the Pacific Northwest intensify their field scouting programs for the potato psyllids that spread the crop disease zebra chip.

Oregon State University researchers say they've found two fields in their region harboring thousands of volunteer potato plants infected with the Liberibacter bacterium that causes the crop disease zebra chip.

The Plant Pathology Department at North Dakota State University will again be providing the potato Blightline service at no charge to the potato industry of North Dakota and western Minnesota in 2012.

A highly cited recent article in the Idaho Falls based Post Register stated that there were new detections of Potato Cyst Nematodes in Idaho. The headline also made it to PotatoPro's News updates. The Idaho Potato Commission has provided a statement c...

Officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture say a microscopic parasite that damages potato crops has been found in three more eastern Idaho fields, bringing the number of infected fields to 15.

Internal Heat Necrosis, or IHN, has many aliases. They include internal brown spot, physiological internal necrosis, internal browning, internal brown fleck, and chocolate spot. Whatever you choose to call this physiological disorder, it is an economi...

Barcodes may bring to mind the sales tags and scanners found in supermarkets and other stores. But U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are using 'DNA barcodes'to monitor insects that damage crops as diverse as wheat, barley and potatoes, and to make pest management decisions.