It has long been the most terrible disease of potatoesLate blight is considered. Previously it was believed that this dangerous fungal infection spreads only with planting material and is not able to tolerate an extreme decrease in ambient temperature during the winter period. However, nowadays late blight, which affects the potato, has undergone mutations and acquired new properties. Therefore, gardeners have to fight the disease throughout the year.
How to deal with blight on potatoes?What drugs and traditional methods should be used to destroy the infection? Are there potato varieties resistant to phytophthora? Answers to these and other questions can be found in our article.
Late blight - a dangerous disease that affectscultivated plants, popularly called brown rot. Usually, the infection begins to destroy garden plantings at the end of the summer. In the absence of targeted actions aimed at combating the disease, about 80% of the harvest may suffer.
The causative agent of the disease is fungalPhytophtora infestans infection. Microscopic spores have the ability to proliferate under favorable conditions. First of all, phytophthora is formed on the leaves of potatoes. Then the infection passes to the shoots and gets to the tubers. With increased humidity, the plants are covered with brown spots. The inside of such damage is covered with white bloom formed by spores of the fungus. In case of loss of abundance of dew in the epicenter of the spread of infection rot forms. With the onset of heat the plants begin to dry out.
If the potato is infected with blight, the surfacetubers covered with dark areas. The infection spreads deep, and the crop gradually rot. It is noteworthy that even healthy tubers, after moving to the cellar, may be infected and begin to decompose.
To understand how to deal with late blight on potatoes, you need to know how the fungal spores spread. So, the disease can affect plants:
Главная особенность фитофтороза – постепенное uneven infection of cultivated plants. The absence of signs of disease on most bushes does not allow gardeners to identify the problem in time and prevent a catastrophe at the stage of ripening shoots. Disputes invisibly to the eye are thrown by wind on the next plantings and together with the rain they go to the upper layers of the soil. Potato shoots affected by the blight can become brown in just a few days. When the humidity of the environment increases, the leaves begin to curl and dry. As a result, the gardener has to observe only protruding stems instead of lush bushes. If the owner of the site cannot decide how to treat the potatoes from the phytophthora, soon the tubers are also covered with brown spots, which become rotten. Infection affects not yet fully ripe potatoes in neighboring areas.
How to deal with blight on potatoes?One of the most effective solutions is the selection of planting material. It is important not only to choose quality seedlings, but also to resort to its germination in greenhouse conditions before being placed in the soil. The decision reduces the time of ripening of the crop and, accordingly, makes it possible to collect it before the onset of the period of “violence” of phytophtoras, which is observed around mid-August.
Одно из самых рациональных решений для борьбы с fungal infection - the choice of seedlings that are not exposed to infection. How to deal with blight on potatoes in this way? Preference should be given to the following varieties:
Prevent crop contamination from late blightallows the choice of sites for planting potatoes. Preference should be given to areas without pronounced lowlands. As noted earlier in our material, late blight prefers moisture. And the water after precipitation is concentrated just in all possible recesses of the soil. To prevent fungal spores from affecting neighboring areas, it is important to make wide aisles when planting potatoes.
If detected phytophthora on potatoes - whatdo? Avoiding crop loss potentially allows the use of the hilling method of bushes. When the shoots begin to grow and close up in rows, you need to tuck up the ground beneath them. The solution will open the infected leaves. There will also be access to direct sunlight to the soil, which will reduce its moisture level.
To prevent the spread of unpleasantdiseases, before you put the tubers in the cellar, you must dry them thoroughly. If there is a drought, you can lay out the crop right on the land. When there is precipitation, drying should be carried out under sheds. It is recommended to place potatoes for long-term storage only after sorting. It is imperative to eliminate tubers that have clear traces of late blight. After all, with the beginning of the next season with such a seedling, the fungal infection will again move to the soil and infection of healthy plants will occur.
In order to spray using the following drugs from phytophthora:
Late blight pathogen may be subject tomutations and develop resistance to the effects of certain substances in the composition of preparations for the treatment of cultivated plants. Therefore, it is important to periodically alternate the above means and resort to combining them.
How to cultivate the land after potato phytophthora? The following chemicals will come to the rescue:
More than to cultivate the land after phytophthorapotatoes? Effectiveness is also demonstrated by such substances as Bordeaux mixture, copper sulphate. These compositions should saturate the soil in the process of digging the site.
So we looked at how phytophthora is destroyedpotato, methods of dealing with this fungal infection. Finally, I would like to highlight a number of preventive measures that will prevent the return of the disease.
If it is not possible to purchase seedlings of varieties,that they do not undergo late blight, in this case it is worth resorting to a full-fledged crop rotation. At least for a year on the site should not be cultivated potatoes. Instead, sow mustard or radish. Shoots of such plants are recommended to be periodically cut and buried in the ground. As practice shows, the decision makes it possible to several times reduce the likelihood of phytophthora returning with the arrival of the next season.
Перед посадкой картофеля необходимо identify contaminated material. For this purpose, the tubers are removed from the cellar and left under a well ventilated canopy for several weeks. The temperature should remain at the level of 15-18aboutC. As soon as some tubers turn white, it is urgent to remove them, and process the rest of the seedlings with fungicides.
During the period of mass collection by tubers, it is worth partially cutting off the potato tops and loosening the soil. The preventive measure will accelerate the ripening of the crop and will lead to a build-up of dense rind potatoes.
If after harvesting has been noticed phytophthoraon potatoes, what to do in such situations? It is necessary to collect all the dry tops abroad and land. With the onset of the next season, it is necessary to water the potatoes as little as possible in cool weather, because these are the conditions that are optimal for the activation of late blight spores.
As you can see, underestimate the seriousness of suchDiseases like late blight are not worth it. In the absence of a targeted fight against the spread of fungal spores, not only the potato harvest, but also other solanaceous crops may suffer. Therefore, it is necessary to timely treat the plants and the soil with appropriate chemicals, pickle and sort the seedlings, use varieties resistant to infection.
