Late Blight in the Eastern US

Kate Everts, Vegetable Pathologist, University of Delaware and University of Maryland; keverts@umd.edu

Late blight, was recently found in both North Carolina and southern Virginia. The infected potato plants have been sent to Cornell University where they are currently being typed for pathogen clonal lineage. Once this information is available, we will have a better idea of whether mefenoxam (Ridomil and related products) will be effective.

Here in Delaware and Maryland, scout the crop carefully for signs or symptoms of disease. Our weather has been conducive, however the pathogen has not been reported here, yet.