Please click here to access the main AHDB website and other sectors.
- Home
- Knowledge library
- Research reports on late blight disease in potatoes
Research reports on late blight disease in potatoes
The AHDB research projects on late blight have been categorised according to the topics covered, to allow readers to identify the most relevant report(s).
Click on a project title to access more information on the project, including the final report.
Monitoring late blight in potatoes in GB
Samples submitted by agronomists and growers as part of the Fight Against Blight campaign were studied in a series of research projects (2004-2022).
The long term data sets (blight outbreaks and weather data) were also used to revise disease risk criteria:
- FAB data used to test the performance of the Smith Period in forecasting late blight disease outbreaks
- Hutton Criteria were developed and were adopted by BlightWatch 2017-2020.
11120032 BlightSense: spatiotemporal analyses of potato late blight outbreaks in GB (2017-2019)
- FAB data and machine learning techniques were used to analyse weather, soil, geology, and topography data to identify the principle factors associated with late blight occurrence.
- The aim of the project was to determine, and rank, effective strategies to slow the selection for strains with decreased sensitivity to fungicides.
Management of late blight disease in potatoes
R242 Comparative efficacy of fungicides for control of late blight in potatoes (2003-2005)
- field trials (two per annum) to evaluate fungicide spray programmes for the control of foliar and tuber blight
- the report refers to fungicides that are no longer approved for use on potatoes in GB
- two field trials (in 2007) to evaluate the integration of cultivar resistance, fungicide product, spray interval and dose
- foliar resistances of 13 varieties were evaluated against the 13_A2 genotype in the field in 2008
- field trials (two per annum) and mathematical modelling techniques to examine the benefits of integrated control
- use of cultivar resistance delays the evolution of fungicide insensitivity and the use of fungicide delays the evolution of virulence
- integrating the two control methods extends their durability
- development of an automated spore trap system for late blight
- characterisation of the curative effect of selected fungicides (propamocarb-HCl + fluopicolide)
- pathogen growth at different temperatures
- field trials to evaluate the decline in curative control with increasing disease development time
- field trials to compare the blight control achieved by commonly used blight control products with and without the addition of a mineral oil
Fungicide resistance management
11120176 Fungicide resistance management for potato (2020-2022)
- field trials to rank the effectiveness of commercially relevant fungicide resistance management strategies