When the potatoes have been harvested, graded and put into storage a great weight has been lifted. The spuds aren’t going to be stuck in the ground due to late season rain. Grubs and bugs aren’t going to start affecting the tubers, and it looks like most of the disease issues have been avoided. They’re safe. Except there is another consideration, and that is storage diseases, discussed in this PotatoLink magazine article.

Developed by SARDI (South Australian Research and Development Institute), PREDICTA Pt is a commercial DNA testing service that can identify which pathogens are in the soil or skin of seed tubers.

In Issue 05 of PotatoLink magazine, Ryan Hall and Jenny Ekman from the PotatoLink team report on PREDICTA Pt including a 5-year case study describing its use in monitoring powdery scab and rhizoctonia on a commercial farm.

Upcoming events, tribute to Tony Biggs, demonstration site news, and new resource.

Join the PotatoLink webinar on Black dot (Colletotrichum coccodes) presented by Dr Julie Pasche, associate professor from North Dakota State University and plant pathologist Len Tesoriero from the NSW Department of Primary Industries.

Black dot is a fungal disease caused by Colletotrichum coccodes. Once considered a minor pathogen, recently there have been significant yield losses and reduced quality. Read this factsheet to know what to look for, how it spreads, and what you can do about it.

This 2001 report was the first study into the influence of crop rotations on disease and yields in the Australian potato industry. The report found that while there were some significant advantages to crop rotations there were still some disease issues that persisted.