RADA issues advisory to Irish potato farmers

The Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) is alerting Irish potato farmers to take precautionary measures to protect their crops in the wake of the recent torrential rainfall.

In a release today ( May 19), RADA advised as follows:

A trough influencing the weather conditions across the entire island has resulted in a high level of rainfall. Due to prolonged hours of wetness, conditions for rapid development and spread of fungal and bacterial diseases on Irish potato are highly favourable.

Irish potato farmers are being advised to be vigilant and take immediate steps in protecting crop from damage with Late Blight (also called ‘burn’ by farmers) and other diseases.

Diseases can spread very rapidly and timing of spraying is critical:

1. Where practical, remove plants that are wilted due to diseases and dispose in a plastic bag.

2. Apply systemic fungicides to control Late Blight as soon as weather permits.
No application of contact fungicides is recommended during this time.
Use only fungicides approved for Irish potato. Read label carefully and apply correct dose rate of product.

3. Use of sticker is highly recommended to improve fungicide adherence.

4. Start fungicide application from the least to the highest affected areas of the field.

5. Ensure that good spray coverage is achieved.

6. Farmers who are planning to harvest their crop should spray field with Reglone one week after the last spraying, or approximately ten (10) days before harvesting.
This is to ensure that top of plants are killed before tubers harvested to reduce tuber rots.

7. Maintain good drainage and weed control.

8. Limit the movement of workers and applicators between fields to reduce spread of the disease.

9. Read and immediately respond to text messages sent from RADA for recommended fungicides and dose rates to be used .

Prepared by:
Technical Services
RADA

Date:
17 May, 2017