University of Idaho Extension has published a new bulletin to help potato farmers recognize the symptoms of bacterial ring rot (BRR) and protect their operations from this devastating potato crop disease. Idaho hasn’t had a ring rot flareup in a few years and the state’s last major outbreak of the disease was in 2012.
UI Extension Seed Potato Specialist Kasia Duellman hopes the bulletin will remind commercial and seed potato farmers to maintain good sanitation practices and remain vigilant for symptoms. She warns ring rot is highly destructive and tough to eliminate once it gets a foothold on a farm.
Ring rot is a tuber-borne bacterial disease that can be present in seed while remaining asymptomatic in seed lots throughout several generations of replanting before symptoms surface. The bacterium produces a protective biofilm that allows it to survive on surfaces in a dormant state for several years, often contaminating crevices in handling equipment, seed cutters, truck beds, machine belts and storage walls.
The new UI Extension bulletin provides a synopsis of research detailing how 25 different potato varieties exhibit ring rot symptoms in two different growing environments.
Click here to read the full report.
Source: potatonewstoday.com