It is a blemish disease of tubers, causing a metallic discoloration of the periderm in irregular patterns. It does not cause yield losses at harvest, but does cause weight loss of stored potatoes due to increased water loss, resulting in excess shrink and flabbiness. It affects quality of all market classes of potatoes. It is a cosmetic disease of red-skinned and russet fresh potatoes, resulting in reduced consumer acceptance and rejection, and after prolonged storage turns round reds into brown rounds. The disease does not affect any other part of the potato plant except the tubers, and the teliomorph or alternate hosts are not known.
Silver scurf is considered primarily a seed-borne disease.
After planting of infected seed pieces, sporulation can be seen on the seed pieces one week after planting, and can be recovered from soil surrounding the seed piece two weeks post-plant. Infection of new progeny tubers can occur as early as nine weeks after planting. Low levels of conidia may persist in the soil form one season to the next, but prolonged soil survival has not been demonstrated. Silver scurf spreads in storage, resulting in an increase in both disease incidence and severity. Sporulation is reduced somewhat by cooler temperatures.