Potato Pathology at Aberdeen

摘要

University of Idaho Potato Pathologist Dr. Phillip Wharton and his team operate a research program at the Aberdeen Research & Extension Center that focuses on improving potato health in field and storage environments in order to help the potato industry reduce pre- and post-harvest losses. The goals of the program are to develop sustainable potato disease management practices to help the industry in Idaho deal with increasing disease problems caused by climate change, new potato pathogens and novel strains of existing pathogens that may have developed resistance to commonly used fungicides. Fungicide resistance screening. Early blight caused by Alternaria solani, and brown leaf spot (caused by A. alternate) are very common diseases of potato found in most potato-growing regions of the U.S. Brown leaf spot is often confused with early blight, as its symptoms are very similar. The pathogens causing these two diseases are closely related and both pathogens are often present on the same diseased plants, which makes it difficult to distinguish how much disease is caused by one pathogen or the other.