Select seed potatoes carefully at harvest time and again at bedding. Use new soil each season for bedding seed. Cull all slips that appear sickly and those with black spots on lower stems. Crop rotations, clean plant beds and use of a fungicide on planting seed will also aid in controlling black rot. If black rot occurs in storage, the rotted roots should be destroyed and the storage area disinfected.
Soil rot is most severe in soils approaching alkalinity.
Control may be obtained by soil fumigation. Some varieties have tolerance to soil rot. See also entry at NCSU. . Foot rot is not as widespread as black rot or stem rot and, therefore, losses to this disease are not as great. On infected vines, the base of the stem turns brown at the soil line and leaves nearest the crown turn yellow and drop.