March 2006
Growers Warned on the Importance
of Controlling Hary Nightshade
As a close relative of potatoes, hairy nightshade hosts multiple
disease, nematode and insect pests of potatoes that can nullify
many of the positive effects of crop rotation. Most herbicides
used to control weeds in potatoes fail to control hairy nightshade.
So warned Rick Boydston, with the USDA-ARS, Prosser, Wash.,
speaking Feb. 9 during the Washington State
Potato Conference in Moses Lake.
Potato is a member of the nightshade
(Solanaceae) family, the speaker said. Three
main nightshade species are present in potato
rotations in the Columbia Basin: (1) hairy
nightshade (Solanum sarrachoides); (2)
black nightshade (S. nigrum); and (3) cutleaf
nightshade (S. trifl orum).
Growers Foregoing $5/CWT
on Potato Shipments
Fresh potato growers currently shipping
potatoes are receiving as much as
$5/cwt. FOB less for their potatoes
than they could expect to obtain later in the
season.
So claims United of America’s National
Fresh Marketing Committee.
Cary Hoffman, committee chair,
warns that the industry currently is so
overshipping projected fresh russet
supplies that growers are both foregoing
future profi ts and lack sufficient supplies to
meet their customers’ late season needs.
This year’s U.S. fresh potato
production is 101.2 million cwt., but the
industry is shipping at a pace and a price
equivalent to a crop of 106.9 million cwt.,
or 6 percent larger than what is available,
Hoffman says.
A Potato Commission Exec Who Has Walked the Walk
As the new executive director of the
Oregon Potato Commission, Bill
Brewer likely has more hands-on
experience on what it means to be a potato
grower than any of his colleagues in
the industry. He has walked the walk and
talked the talk.
A native of eastern Oregon, Brewer
was born in Ontario and grew up on a
farm in the Adrian area. He earned his
high school diploma from Adrian High
School and later, in 1974, earned a degree
in agricultural education at Oregon
State University.
“My father was a potato farmer,” he
smiles. “While growing up, potatoes
were our major crop and over the years
have continued to be my favorite.”
Potato Tuberworm
Management Recommendations
What best management practices are
recommended for controlling potato
tuberworm (PTW)?
Alan Schreiber, president of Agriculture
Development Group Inc., summed up the
feelings of the Pacific Northwest research
team working on the PTW threat Feb.
7 during the Washington State Potato
Conference in Moses Lake.
Schreiber’s presentation was based on
a preliminary report, soon to be published
in Potato Progress, authored by himself,
Andy Jensen of the Washington State Potato
Commission and George Clough of Oregon
State University.
Much about the biology and management
of PTW in the Pacifi c Northwest is unknown,
Schreiber acknowledged, before
detailing the following recommendations
for the Washington and
Oregon potato production area.
Biological Seed Treatment Combats
a Broad Range of Fungal Diseases
A company based in Kamsack, Saskatchewan,
Canada, is launching a new biological
bio fungicide into the seed treatment
market this year. Unlike other biological
fungicides, HeadsUp® Plant Protectant
contains no living microbes and has a long
and stable shelf life.
Six years of development and university
trials have produced effi cacy data in potato
fungal disease research. The majority of
product testing has been done at Michigan
State University with Dr. Willie Kirk. Trials
have shown HeadsUp® to signifi cantly
reduce fungal diseases such as rhizoctonia,
early blight, brown spot, pink rot, pythium,
black dot, early dying complex and fusarium
dry rot in potatoes.
Memorandum of Understanding
Could Help Boost Seed Exports
Seed potato certifi cation programs
in the United States are operated
by various government agencies,
such as Departments of Agriculture, Crop
Improvement Associations, universities and
state seed departments.
Except for quarantine issues, there is no
federal oversight of seed potato certifi cation
in the U.S., pointed out Terry Bourgoin,
speaking Dec. 10 during the National
Potato Council Seed
Seminar in Dearborn,
Mich.
Bourgoin serves
with the Maine
Department of
Agriculture Division
of Plant Industry,
Food and Rural
Resources, Augusta,
Maine.
Potato Seed Piece
Health Management
Fusarium dry rot is one of the most important
diseases of potatoes, affecting tubers in storage and seed tubers
after planting. Fusarium sambucinum is the
most common pathogen causing dry rot of
stored tubers in North America. Fusarium
dry rot of seed can reduce crop establishment
through its ability to destroy developing
potato sprouts. Crop losses can be up to
25 percent and greater than 60 percent of
tubers can be infected in storage. All of the
commonly grown potato varieties in North
America are susceptible to the pathogen,
although some are more tolerant
than others.
There are two main opportunities
in the potato crop cycle for
the control of Fusarium dry rot.
First is the post-harvest control
of seed piece decay in the seed
crop in the fall; second is the
control of seed piece decay and
sprout infection prior to planting
of the commercial crop in the
spring.