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.

In this PotatoLink Disease Webinar Series No 1, research scientist, Dr Tonya Wiechel, provided an overview of a 10-year integrated disease management program showcasing the team’s investigations into common scab.

Keeping up to date with international pest and disease threats is important. This ongoing project conducted a scan of the most recent research and development on international potato pests, research previously conducted in Australia on these pests and some ‘ready to use’ resources.

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.