News on Potato Defects and Diseases from Europe

While recent rain should help boost protective soil intake by harvesters, the risk of potato bruising remains high, potato agronomists and machinery makers are warning.

Plant breeding business KWS marked its formal entry into potato breeding in the UK last week, with a demonstration of up-and-coming varieties and an outline of its key breeding objectives for the potato crop.

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 ...

Sustainable potato production across the EU could be under threat from potato cyst nematodes (PCN) and free living nematodes (FLN) without a comprehensive review of sampling and management options.

The increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere can have a positive influence on the potato yield. This is according to Anton Haverkort of Plant Research International, part of Wageningen UR, on 22 August during the bi-annual Potato Demo Day at Westmaas.

A group of campaigners in the Irish Republic has been refused a legal challenge over the first trial of a genetically modified potato crop. In July, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave the go ahead for a gm blight-resistant potato crop to be tested in County Carlow.

The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute and CAFRE, Greenmount Campus have issued a further potato blight warning.

With bacterial disease blackleg posing a threat to Scottish seed potato crops for a second consecutive season, there was advice at Potatoes in Practice on managing the risk of spread during haulm destruction.

Wet weather is once again favouring blackleg development in Scottish seed potato crops, although disease levels are believed currently to be below the record levels seen in 2011.

The application of oils has the potential to assist in the control of non-persistent viruses in potato seed crops. However, more work is required to establish the effects on seed crops.

In France, according to the UNPT, blight pressure remains strong and there are signs of early senesce in some crops.

A scheme to clear fields in Northern Ireland of potato wart disease has been hailed as a success.

Ireland's environmental protection agency has approved the first trial of a genetically modified potato crop.

Potato growers could achieve potential savings of more than €450/ha if they used a blight-resistant genetically modified (GM) potato variety instead of a conventional variety.

La Agencia de Protección Ambiental (EPA) dio su visto bueno para las pruebas de una papa genéticamente modificada (GM) que es resistente al tizón de la papa. En los próximos cuatro años se sembrarán en Irlanda dos hectáreas con esta papa genéticament...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today given consent to Teagasc, Oak Park, Co Carlow, to carry out field trials on a genetically modified (GM) potato line with improved resistance to late potato blight.

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.