8-26 FB Potato Early Blight

 Early Blight in potatoes is a problem…with potential solution.

 Early blight first appears as small, dark brown to black spots on older leaflets on lower portions of plants. These expand to form the disease’s characteristic concentric rings. The lesions produce asexual spores under wet, humid conditions and readily spread by rain and wind. Under severe pressure, these lesions can form tissue that becomes brittle and dry. Early blight occurs mainly on plant leaves. The fungus can survive on infected crop debris in the soil, on volunteers, or on alternate solanaceous hosts. Wind-blown spores germinate and infect foliage-forming lesions within two- to five-days. The early blight fungus can often be recovered from healthy-looking leaf tissue prior to the onset of tubers but causes no visible symptoms until potatoes approach maturity. Here’s David Laird, Brand Manager for Revus Top by Syngenta: “Revus Top is a relatively new fungicide this will be its third year in the market, it’s a product that’s labeled for use on potatoes as well as a few other vegetable crops like tomatoes, it’s a combination of two active ingredients, one of those is a late blight specialist and the other is for other diseases in potatoes including black spot, early blight and black dot.