For effective control of late blight, integrated management MUST be adopted by all producers, large and small, including organic farmers, home gardeners and other specialized growers, by pesticide and equipment manufacturers and suppliers, and by government agencies, extension specialists and crop consultants. 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. Early blight and late blight, two serious diseases of potato, are widely distributed. Both are found everywhere potatoes are grown.
Late blight is a plant disease that attacks both potatoes and tomatoes.
Late blight caused the Irish potato famine in the 1850's, during which millions of people in Ireland starved or were forced to emigrate. Entire potato crops rotted in the field or in storage because of late blight infection. Late blight is caused by a fungal pathogen that survives from one season to the next in infected potato tubers. This fungal pathogen is well known for its ability to produce millions of spores from infected plants under the wet weather conditions that favor the disease. Just as late blight poses an enhanced threat to potato growers, a unique opportunity exists for a real impact in the short term.