Rain driving spread of potato blight

By ANDREW ARBUCKLE
Published on 18/07/2012 00:00

One of the scourges of the potato crop – blight – has now been found in all the major growing areas of Scotland, with infestation levels running well ahead of average.

But yesterday, Eric Anderson, of Scottish Agronomy, was confident that growers could deal with the problem. Speaking at a farm open day outside Cupar, he said: “With modern chemistry used in the right combination, we can get control of foliar blight.”

Growers heard that the two main strains of blight now attacking the crop are far more virulent than anything experienced previously and they also had the capacity to multiply much faster than pre 2005 blight strains.

The big problem this year in controlling the bacterial disease has been the weather. Anderson said the first fortnight in July had seen three inches of rain fall in the Edinburgh area, well above a normal month’s rainfall.

Anderson considered that the overall crop was two to three weeks behind normal and that would bring a yield penalty at harvest time.