Monitoring potato seed lots to control blackleg in fields in Switzerland and southern Germany

Werra, Patrice; Kopp, Christoph; Häberli, Martin; Stöcker, Ingo; Keil, Andrea; Debonneville, Christophe; Oberhänsli, Thomas; Altenbach, Denise; Keiser, Andreas (2020). Monitoring potato seed lots to control blackleg in fields in Switzerland and southern Germany Plant Pathology, 69(7), pp. 1331-1346. Wiley-Blackwell 10.1111/ppa.13226

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Potato blackleg is a seedborne disease that can cause significant economic losses for growers. Disease development depends mainly on two drivers, namely seed inoculum and local climatic conditions. To better establish the relationship between these two drivers, blackleg development was monitored in Swiss field trials at multiple locations from 2010 to 2013 involving three sets of naturally infected seed lots planted in each of three locations. The seed lot itself was thereby the most important factor explaining differences in disease development, rather than environmental factors. In a further on‐farm project conducted at various locations in Switzerland and southern Germany from 2013 to 2015, the implementation of a seed‐testing procedure was investigated. A total of 177 seed lots were tested for natural latent infection with soft rot Pectobacteriaceae and the corresponding blackleg incidence was tracked in 242 fields. The reliability of the relationship between latent infection and field incidence was found to be strongly linked to the bacterial species. Dickeya spp. field infection could be predicted with an acceptable reliability, whereas Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. brasiliense, even when detected as latent tuber infection, was not consistently expressed as visual blackleg. Moreover, commonly found mixed latent infections with several bacterial species made it even harder to predict which bacteria would cause blackleg symptoms. Finally, variability in the reliability of seed testing may also be explained by differences in local farming practices. These trials over several years with naturally infected potato seed highlight the usefulness and limits of seed testing to manage blackleg.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL > Agriculture School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL > Agriculture > Plant Production and Biodiversity
Name:	Werra, Patrice; Kopp, Christoph; Häberli, Martin; Stöcker, Ingo; Keil, Andrea; Debonneville, Christophe; Oberhänsli, Thomas; Altenbach, Denise and Keiser, Andreas
Subjects:	S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General) S Agriculture > SB Plant culture
ISSN:	0032-0862
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell
Language:	English
Submitter:	Andreas Keiser
Date Deposited:	07 Jan 2021 07:30
Last Modified:	24 Oct 2021 02:18
Publisher DOI:	10.1111/ppa.13226
Uncontrolled Keywords:	blackleg, environmental conditions, latent infection, potato, seed-tuber testing, soft rot
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.14058
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/14058