News on Phytophthora from United Kingdom

Potato growers and agronomists in he United Kingdom will be better prepared to cope with more aggressive blight strains this season, with a new BlightCast warning tailored to focus on infections now typically occurring earlier in the season at cooler temperatures.

Researchers at the Universities of Dundee and Aberdeen have made a breakthrough in understanding how the microbial spores which cause potato blight are so effective at infecting plants.

In Northern Ireland, the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute and CAFRE, Greenmount Campus has issued the first potato blight warning for 2014.

In the United Kingdom, many potato crops are now emerging well - straight into conditions that pose a high risk of blight.

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

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.

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.

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.

As part of the Potato Council’s ‘Fight against blight’ campaign, the mapping of late blight outbreaks has demonstrated outgrade piles remain a significant source of blight in potato crops.

The very early discovery of a new potato blight strain in Britain doesn't mean that spray programmes will have to change this year, agree researchers and agronomists.

Phytophthora infestans, the causal agent of late blight, has evolved to overcome fungicides and major resistance genes that have been bred into commercial potato cultivars.

Potato growers in the United Kingdom have two additional blight fungicide choices this year after BASF launched two new products into an already crowded market.

Un equipo científico financiado con fondos comunitarios y dirigido por el Laboratorio Sainsbury del Parque Científico de Norwich (Reino Unido) ha descubierto al responsable del tizón tardío o mildiú de la patata y el tomate y el mildiú lanoso de verdur...

Researchers funded by the BBSRC Crop Science Initiative have made a discovery that could instigate a paradigm shift in breeding resistance to Phytophthora infestans