News on Potato Defects and Diseases from the Americas

A worrisome tuber necrotic strain of Potato virus Y, called NTN, is now present in Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Montana, according to results of the 2011 Washington Commercial Seed Lot Trial.

Con la v de victoria, presentaron el lunes las nuevas variedades de papas para Antioquia, con la ventaja de que vienen a prueba del tizón tardío o gota, que produce la destrucción o quemazón del follaje y la pudrición seca de la papa.

In October, the University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences confirmed that Idaho’s potato growers faced a new challenge to the state’s most famous crop with the arrival of Zebra chip.

A potato disease that arrived late this summer in the Pacific Northwest called zebra chip likely can't be spread by planting infected seed, new research suggests.

Yannery Gómez Bonilla, a graduate in Biology from the University of Costa Rica, has done research for her PhD into the application of granulovirus against two species of potato tuber moth.

El Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos (USDA, por sus siglas en inglés), en colaboración con tres universidades más, ha lanzado recientemente un sitio web para difundir información relacionada con el virus Y (PVY) de la papa. Este sitio s...

The USDA, in cooperation with three major universities, recently launched a web site to disseminate information related to Potato Virus Y. This information will prove useful to all groups of people who need information about PVY, from potato growers, to scientists, to people working within the potato industry, to consumers of potatoes and potato products.

Zebra chip disease nearly destroyed a large USA potato growing business, its owner and chief executive told the Cambridge University Potato Growers Research Association conference earlier this month.

The lawyer for a New Brunswick potato farmer who has been jailed in Lebanon for the past nine months says that a letter from Ottawa (Canadian Government) is all that's needed to free his client. Henk Tepper, 44, has been held in a Beirut prison since ...

Idaho should consider a more stringent cap on the percentage of seed potatoes infected with potato virus Y that may be replanted for more seeds, an industry expert advised. The current cap is 2 percent. PVY is an aphid-spread disease that reduces both...

Chanting “Free Henk now” and “Mr. Harper, make the call,” about 100 protesters joined family and friends in a small New Brunswick community Sunday to support ongoing efforts to bring imprisoned potato farmer Henk Tepper home in time for the holidays. ...

Researchers on P.E.I. and in Alberta are looking for new ways to kill wireworms before the larvae destroy farmer's crops. Christine Norohna from Agriculture Canada has already done some research using buckwheat and brown mustard as rotation crops. She...

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...

A simple barrier technology has tested effective to prevent the spread and infestation of Andean potato weevils, while also protecting the biodiversity of insects, including natural enemies of pests. An ordinary sheet of plastic is proving to be a sim...

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...

In light of the recent confirmation of zebra chip in Idaho, Focus on Potato, a nonprofit potato crop management resource, has made open access its presentation on Zebra Chip Disease of Potatoes by Gary Secor of North Dakota State University. This pres...

'Focus on Potato' of the Plant Management Network has published a new webcast: Common Scab of Potatoes By Thomas A. Zitter Ph.D., Professor, Dept of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Two new infestations of a microscopic wormlike pest that attacks potato plants have been discovered in eastern Idaho, state and federal agriculture officials say. Lloyd Knight of the Idaho Department of Agriculture said that both infestations of the p...