Spud Scoop July 24, 2020
Welcome to this week’s Spud Scoop! It’s been a week of warming temperatures and more rainfall in many areas. In general, the potato crop seems to be progressing well. Weather conditions continue to be favorable for late blight, as can be seen in late blight model
severity values increasing this week. Late blight spore DNA was identified in the Lisbon, ND trap. Some things I have noticed this week as a result of the heat is that tuber sets seem to be lower, causing the remaining tubers to size up quickly. As a result of hot temperatures, I have seen Red Norland tubers have knobs or bumps developing on them. Nitrogen stress is showing up really nicely in our research trials. Symptoms of nitrogen stress is yellowing or chlorosis of lower leaves and reduced plant size.