Keeping the right balance of good and bad bacteria in your soil in order to combat common scab could require less water than you think, according to results of a recently completed project on the disease.
Better understanding of how the casual agents for common scab interact with other soil microflora looks set to bring improvements in scab control.
The Defra-sponsored LINK project, carried out by the Food and Environment Research Authority (FERA), Cambridge University Farm (CUF) and the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC), could actually help growers save water and help with abstraction licence renewals, according to Potato Council’s water, soil and energy specialist Chris Steele.
“Results of the project clearly show growers can control common scab by irrigating the crop with 15-20 mm of water starting at tuber initiation for three to four weeks duration. This is perhaps two weeks less than has been practiced in the past.”

The range of Certis’ metaldehyde slug pellets, Trigger, Certis Metaldehyde and Certis Red, have had the use on potato crops re-instated allowing a harvest interval of just seven days. The news follows the revocation of all metaldehyde-based slug pellets for use on potatoes in autumn last year.

The Potato Council is set to help farmers’ markets boost potato sales with its high impact promotional material.
The eye-catching sales aids include 12 recipe cards, each depicting a simple dinner idea that is quick and easy to cook, as well as great value for money.
They are intended to inspire consumers to cook up more potato-based dishes.
Helen Moulton, Potato Council marketing executive, said: “We recognise that in the tougher trading conditions, small and independent retailers and farm shops need additional marketing support and this facility has been developed specifically to help them.

Growers need to launch pre-emptive strikes to reduce the risk of viruses spreading in seed crops following earlier-than-expected sightings of aphids.
The Potato Council said the peach-potato aphid, Myzus persicae, was first seen in a trap in East Anglia in mid-May, with more sightings over the next month.
"Research suggests vectors are coming into the crop earlier, so good virus hygiene on the farm is all the more important," said aphid specialist Drummond Todd.

They can be seen vying for attention in the local markets, but consumers eye them warily with sellers barely being able to persuade them to change their preference. Scientists, however, are vouching for their nutritive value.
Not that they weren’t sceptical of black potato in the beginning. “They were a surprise for us. The results of their preliminary tests in our laboratories, however, were very encouraging. Black potato was found to be very rich in anthocyanin, calcium, vitamin C, iron, and energy levels as compared to the normal potatoes that we consume every day,” said Dr D B Singh, head, horticulture department, Allahabad Agriculture Institute-Deemed University (AAIDU) to The Indian Express.

The potato market has remained steady over the last three months, with little change in the offer or prices. However, the plentiful supplies of maincrop have held back demand for new potatoes, in spite of the recent run of warm weather. So how is the market for the new crop expected to shape up?
The potato category has been slow to embrace the new season this year, with a maincrop hangover and a longer season for Jersey Royals holding back some of the fanfare that normally marks the first arrivals of the new crop.
Both growers and suppliers fear that this could be a tricky season, with plentiful volumes on the market and prices for early potatoes falling faster than they did last year.

A carbon reduction labeling scheme will be launched in Australia next year, informing shoppers of the overall carbon footprint of products. Australian environmental group Planet Ark has this week announced it is to partner with the UK government-backed Carbon Trust to set up its Carbon Reduction Label program Down Under. Under the scheme, products on store shelves will display the amount of carbon dioxide emissions generated from their manufacture through to disposal. They also have to commit to reducing the product's carbon footprint on a year-by-year basis, if they want to continue to carry the label.
The Carbon Trust launched the programme in the UK in 2007, and now has more than 60 companies carrying the label on some or all of their products.
In total, 2,500 different products now display the label ranging from fruit juice to paving stones. A number of high-profile brands have adopted the labelling system including Walkers potato crisps, Tropicana juice and Innocent Smoothies. Meanwhile, supermarket giant Tesco has vowed to roll out the label across all its own-brand products.

Soaring potato prices have returned to haunt farmers and average consumers this summer again. Unlike last year when the crisis was caused by surplus production, the blame this season is being thrust on blight — a dreaded plant disease that ruins the crop.

Some varieties are being hit harder than others.
With the main potato harvest under way, some growers are experiencing crop yield losses of between 15 and 50 per cent, Horticulture New Zealand Potato Product Group chairman Terry Olsen says.
The Opiki farmer said many growers were attributing lower yields to psyllid damage.