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Crop Borders Manage Potato Virus
by C.D. DiFonzo, research associate, E.B. Radcliffe,, professor, and D.W. Ragsdale, professor, Entomology, University of Minnesota, C. Holen, extension educator/associate professor, and D. Preston, professor, Horticulture Science, Minnesota State Extension Service, N.C. Gudmestad, associate professor, and G.A. Secor, professor, Plant Pathology, North Dakota State University

In the early 1990s, seed-potato growers in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota lost millions of dollars due to an epidemic of potato virus Y (PVY). PVY, transmitted by aphids, stunts growth, reduces yield, and causes premature death of plants. Growers have traditionally used insecticides to kill aphids, but they do not work quickly enough to prevent PVY from spreading.

Photo: PVY-infected potato leaf (left). Healthy plant (right).

As an alternative to insecticides, IPM surrounded seed-potato fields with crop borders that are not susceptible to the virus. Aphids acquire PVY by feeding on infected plants, but are unlikely to transmit the virus after probing uninfected plants. Therefore, researchers hoped aphids would land in, and probe, the crop borders before entering the seed-potato fields.

Results of IPM research showed crop borders reduced the spread of PVY to seed potato by more than 50 percent. Early-generation seed growers in the Red River Valley now use crop borders around seed-potato fields.

[Integrated Pest Management
in the North Central States] 		[National Integrated Pest Management Network]
These pages adapted from North Central Region Extension Publication NCR 586.
To order a printed copy, see our ordering information page.
Last updated August 25,1997 by John VanDyk