State wants help fighting potato blight
22.05.12
Staff Writer
AUGUSTA -- Much of the state's seed potato supply for this year is infected with blight and the state has asked the federal government for an emergency exemption to make an effective but expensive toxic seed treatment available to farmers.
"The time is pretty germane to have it now," said Steve Johnson, a crops specialist with the University of Maine cooperative extension. "The pathogen has been found in seeds, and so the last thing we want to do is start our own epidemic by planting these seeds."
Extreme wet weather and infected seed potatoes that were imported during the 2011 growing season resulted in a severe outbreak of late blight on Maine's potato crop. Saturated soil late in the season transferred it to the tubers in the ground, Johnson said.
To ward against another severe outbreak of late blight on Maine's potato crop, the Board of Pesticides Control has asked the federal government for an emergency exemption registration for Revus fungicide, an expensive pesticide that's mildly to highly toxic to different species.
Source: Morning Sentinel