News on Potato Defects and Diseases from Texas

Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists are working on a new research project to fight plant diseases transmitted by psyllid insects — particularly the zebra chip disease, which has impacted potato production for decades.

New potato varieties bred by the Texas A&M Potato Breeding Program could enter the french fry market before long, said Isabel Vales, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife potato breeder in the Department of Horticultural Sciences

Humble potatoes are a rich source not only of dietary carbohydrates for humans, but also of starches for numerous industrial applications. Texas A&M AgriLife scientists are learning how to alter the ratio of potatoes’

The Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant pathology team intentionally infected potato plants with psyllids positive with the bacterium that causes zebra chip disease, in order to identify promising germplasm in the battle against the disease plaguing the US potato industry for the past 15 years.

The potato industry may be losing a mainstay in the battle against psyllids, according to a recent Texas A&M AgriLife Research study.

Participants at the 25th annual Texas Potato Breeding and Variety Development Program field day learned that the harvest is underway, that psyllids are threatening unharvested fields and that new varieties are showing lots of promise.

Entomologist Ada Szczepaniec at Texas A&M AgriLife Research is addressing the concern of growing resistance of potato psyllids to the neonicotinoid classification of insecticides.

According to United States Department of Agriculture’s crop production predictions, average potato yield per acre increased during the 2013 season.

In an effort to propel this upward trend into the New Year, Bayer CropScience launched its Potato Perspectives Survey during Potato Expo in San Antonio, Texas, Jan. 8-10, 2014.

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?

Zebra chip, a disease that affects potatoes, was recently found in the potato-growing regions of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The discovery brings to focus the growing need for scientific answers – something that will be discussed at the SCRI Zebra Ch...