The Potato Association of America meetings were held last week in Fargo, ND. Interesting items of note were:
- Scottish scientists (including Ian Toth and Gerry Saddler) recommend regulating Dickeya dianthicola as A2 quarantine pest. They also recommend a zero tolerance for all Dickeya spp. on potatoes in Scotland.
- Work from North Dakota and Maine presented changes in dormant tuber tests that increased Dickeya recovery (reduced the false negatives) by as much as 30 percent.
- There is a new Pectobacterium species reported from Maine that affects plants in the field and tubers in storage.
- There may be some progress in chemical control of the pathogens (and NO, it is not phosphorous acid, Tanos, or anything else applied to the foliage!!!)
Sound interesting? Valuable? These, and other speakers will all be presenting on these and other topics at the Dickeya and Pectobacterium summit in Bangor on November 9, 2017.
This is an opportunity to hear the latest information that you, as a grower, need to know about these pathogens and diseases.
There is still room at the upcoming Dickeya and Pectobacterium Summit: https://extension.umaine.edu/agriculture/programs/dickeya-and-pectobacterium-summit/