Like any other plant from our garden, the potato has its enemies, which reduce the yield of root vegetables: various insects, fungal spores, bacteria and viruses. It is much cheaper and easier to conduct a preventive fight against potato diseases, but if preventive maintenance does not help, then various chemical substances come to the aid of the vegetable marketer. In order to correctly choose the method of struggle for maintaining a high yield of potatoes, you need to know what diseases in general can "suffer" this garden crop. There are a lot of diseases of potatoes, some of them are amazed as they grow still in the ground, others attack it during storage.
Diseases and pests of potatoes
Hardly the main harm to potatoes is inflicted on everyone by the famous Colorado beetle. He and his larvae eat leaves, and even young shoots of potatoes. On the underside of the leaves, the Colorado beetle lays up to 70 eggs, which then develop into the larva and the pupa. Hot summer promotes a special multiplication of this pest.
The disease of potato tubers causes a wireworm that lives in the ground. The larvae of this beetle pass through the tuber and cause its decay. Due to the bright color this pest is clearly visible on the soil, it can be collected manually and destroyed. You can lay baits between pieces of carrots and potatoes between the rows. Once the pests accumulate in them, the lures are collected and burned in kerosene. A wireworm lives most often among wheat grass, so we must constantly fight this weed. The greatest harm is caused by a wireworm in a dry summer. So potato watering, as well as early autumn digging of the earth, are important preventive measures.
One of the most dangerous fungal diseases of potatoes is late blight, in which leaves, stems, and tubers are affected. On the potato leaves appear small brown spots, which gradually spread to the whole plant and lead to its death. If during the harvesting of potatoes the tubers come into contact with the infected leaves, then the fungus and the tubers themselves become infected. Another fungus disease of potato tubers is phomosis, in which a small ulcer appears on the tuber. Subsequently, it bursts, becomes covered with a gray bloom, and the tuber comes into disrepair.
A particularly dangerous disease of tubers is potato cancer. Externally, the tubers affected by this disease become similar to cauliflower and are not suitable for use at all. When planting it is necessary to choose the resistant varieties of potatoes.
Bacterial diseases of potatoes
Particularly harmful are the bacterial diseases of potatoes, such as ring rot, black stem stem and mucous bacteriosis. The black stem of the stems infects the plant during flowering and leads to its death. The disease can affect the stored or planting tubers, which rot. Potato rot rotates all parts of the plant, while the aerial part withers, and the tubers rot. A relatively new disease is mucous bacteriosis or brown rot, which lives on the soil. Very good for wet and warm rainy weather.
Diseases of potatoes during storage
If tubers are mechanically damaged during potato harvesting, then a wet rot occurs later on - the skin is damaged and the flesh becomes soft. When storing potatoes in a cellar with poor ventilation, the tubers become suffocated, and they quickly rot. And if the cellar is too cold, as a result of freezing, the pulp of the potato becomes sweet to the taste and decays.
To avoid such diseases of potatoes, you need to choose the most resistant to disease varieties, harvest the harvest on time and store it, observing all the rules and regulations. And then you collected the "second bread" enough to a new crop.