Potato late blight continues to be the most devastating of all diseases in potato crops.

The disease is caused by the fungus-like oomycete pathogen Phytophthora infestans which thrives in Irish summer conditions. If left uncontrolled, losses of up to 100% can be expected.

Teagasc estimates that in Ireland alone, €5m is spent annually on fungicides to control the disease. This typically takes place through 14-20 fungicide applications per season.

Late blight research programme

Teagasc today invited growers and agronomists to Oak Park to start the next stage of their blight research programme.

Oak Park continues to have a successful potato breeding programme as well as commercial fungicide trials, and in the past conducted genetically modified variety trials as well as blight control trials.

Like all diseases, blight is changing. Across Europe, new strains of the disease have been recorded and have been making their way west. Some of these strains have developed reduced sensitivity to commonly used blight fungicides.

Information pertaining to European blight spread and strains can be found on the website EuroBlight. However, when it comes to Ireland, information of the pathogens strains and their evolution is limited.

Currently, as we understand it, the Irish P. infestans population is dominated by three distinct genotypes, EU_6_A1, Eu_8_A1 and EU_13_A1. The likelihood that additional blight strains are present in Ireland is high, but little sampling and analysis has been done to confirm this.

This new round of research aims to change this.

As part of the new research programme, Teagasc are actively looking for potato blight samples to analyse and catalogue, helping to build a clearer picture here in Ireland.

Researchers and advisers are also conducting fungicide trials, aiming to identify strengths and weaknesses of the main fungicide actives to help guide the development of control programmes. Teagasc are also working with Met Éireann to fine tune the blight forecasting and warning system.

Full report from the morning to come.

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