However, the effect of other nutrients on potato early blight does not seem to be well investigated. Low nitrogen levels are reported to increase severity of early blight disease in potato (Jindo et al. Since nutrients are important for both plants and microorganisms, many interactions between plant and soil factors may occur and the effect of a specific nutrient can vary in different environments (Dordas 2008 Huber et al. The effect may depend on the type of pathogen, since obligate pathogens may increase disease severity at high nitrogen levels, while disease caused by facultative pathogens usually decrease at high N levels (Dordas 2008). Mineral nutrients are important for plant resistance to pathogens even if there are contradicting reports on the effect of nutrients on plant disease (Dordas 2008) that need to be further elucidated. 2022a, b), but it would be beneficial if field soil specific parameters would also be taken into consideration in these models to create more accurate simulations. There are multiple prognosis systems for potato early blight being developed most of them are only based on weather conditions and plant age (Meno et al. 2008), but also early blight is currently demanding many treatments to be controlled. Late blight treatment is the main reason for the high amounts of pesticides being used in potato production (Haverkort et al. 2020) is aiming to reduce the use of pesticides by 50%, and to achieve that for potato early blight, studies of factors linked to IPM including the importance of soil, plant and management factors for early blight disease development are of great importance. However, IPM is not being used to a great extent for early blight management in Sweden today, meaning fungicides are probably overused. IPM could be considered for early blight in potatoes as well (Jindo et al. IPM is not a strict principle that applies to all situations uniformly, but rather a philosophy of guidance to use the most suitable and sustainable tool appropriate for the situation (Dara 2019). The development of integrated pest management, IPM, is aiming to optimise holistic methods in disease control strategies with minimised use of chemical pesticides to tackle plant diseases (Barrera 2020). The main method to decrease the yield loss from early blight today is fungicide usage with multiple sprays per season (Horsfield et al. In Sweden the pathogen is mainly infecting the foliage causing earlier defoliation leading to a lower yield (Andersson and Wiik 2008 Edin et al. The soil-borne fungus Alternaria solani is causing early blight disease in potatoes. With knowledge about field and management factors that influence disease, field-specific recommendations can be developed supporting an integrated pest management strategy for early blight to reduce and optimise the fungicide usage. Further no reduction in disease severity was observed with a four-year crop rotation. Low levels of leaf potassium increased the severity of early blight infection, and this observation was confirmed in field trials where different levels of potassium fertiliser were applied. The early blight severity was directly positively correlating with a high sand content. We found that the soil composition was of significant importance for the severity of infection, in particular the sand, clay, and potassium content. In addition to the observational study, field trials were performed in 20, evaluating the effect of potassium fertiliser levels on severeness of infection. The disease severity was scored twice in the untreated plot and information about various soil/plant parameters and farmer’s management was collected from each field. However, late blight fungicides were applied. In each field a 24 m × 24 m plot was left untreated against early blight. Over three seasons, 2019–2021, 52 field plots were observed at farms in southern Sweden. The aim of this study was to gain understanding of what field and management parameters are the most important for early blight severity to create more farm-specific fungicide treatment recommendations. The severity of early blight can vary largely among fields. The pathogen is today mainly controlled by fungicide applications. Alternaria solani is causing early blight and thereby yield reduction in the potato production.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |