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IPM Helps Growers Manage Potato Late-Blight Disease |
In recent years, the potato late-blight disease has been severe in the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota. To respond rapidly and appropriately to disease threats, growers need timely information about diseases, easy access to that information, and effective management strategies that protect yields and reduce pesticide use.
Photo: late blight disease symptoms.
By adapting Wisconsin's irrigated-potato disease-management model, North Dakota researchers helped producers successfully predict leaf diseases of non-irrigated potatoes grown in the Red River Valley. The North Dakota project expanded the existing weather network to include more sites in the potato production area, collected data from weather monitoring stations to make specific recommendations for potato production areas, and provided weather reports and disease information via a toll-free telephone hotline, the Data Transmission Network, and local radio networks.
Despite 1994 conditions being more favorable for late blight than those in 1993, the incidence and severity of late blight were significantly less because the project helped growers respond quickly and appropriately. In fact, 85 percent of potato growers used the weather information to make management decisions.
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[Integrated Pest Management in the North Central States] |
[National Integrated Pest Management Network] |