4-13 FB Potato Disease

 Purchasing Potatoes for Planting Certified Seed Ensures

Good Yield and a Healthy Crop

Boise - Enacted by the Idaho State Legislature in 1996, the Idaho Seed Potato Law requires that all potatoes for planting purposes offered for sale or distribution into or within Idaho be inspected and certified. Certification agencies such as the Idaho Crop Improvement Association provide inspection and certification services for a variety of seed types, including potatoes. Certifications help to ensure variety purity and health of the seed.

Potato plants can be plagued with many diseases – bacterial, viral and fungal – and some of these are passed on through potato tubers. Certified seed potatoes are tested for major potato diseases, and have been selected to provide the best results with the highest yield potential. ISDA’s Mike Cooper explains the vulnerability of potatoes to disease: “the potato is like a sponge. The longer you leave it out there and the longer it is more exposed to pest pressures and everything every year, the more the disease levels build up in the potato.”

Producers of seed potatoes rigorously clean and protect their premises and do a rigorous selection to increase seed over a few generations from isolated nuclear stocks. The first leaf meristem is used in tissue culture because it has a far lower risk of containing virus particles.