Randall C. Rowe
Sally A. Miller
Richard M. Riedel
Late blight is one of the most devastating diseases of potato and tomato worldwide. It was responsible for the devastating Irish potato famine of the 1840's and has continued to be important to the present. Since 1990, late blight has caused widespread damage across the United States and Canada. If left unmanaged, this disease can result in complete destruction of potato or tomato crops.
Late blight appears on potato or tomato leaves as pale green, water-soaked spots, often beginning at leaf tips or edges. The circular or irregular leaf lesions are often surrounded by a pale yellowish-green border that merges with healthy tissue. Lesions enlarge rapidly and turn dark brown to purplish-black. During periods of high humidity and leaf wetness, a cottony, white mold growth is usually visible on lower leaf surfaces at the edges of lesions. In dry weather, infected leaf tissues quickly dry up and the white mold growth disappears. Infected areas on stems appear brown to black and entire vines may be killed in a short time when moist weather persists.
On potato tubers, late blight appears as a shallow, coppery-brown, dry rot that spreads irregularly from the surface through the outer 1/8-1/2 inch or more of tissue. On tuber surfaces, lesions appear brown, dry, and sunken, while infected tissues immediately beneath the skin appear granular and tan to copper-brown. When tubers are stored under cool, dry conditions, lesion development is retarded and, upon prolonged storage, lesions may become slightly sunken and desiccated. Secondary bacteria and fungi frequently enter late-blight lesions, usually resulting in a slimy breakdown of entire tubers.
Late blight can also develop on green tomato fruit, resulting in large, firm, brown, leathery-appearing lesions, often concentrated on the sides or upper fruit surfaces. If conditions remain moist, abundant white mold growth will develop on the lesions and secondary soft-rot bacteria may follow, resulting in a slimy, wet rot of the entire fruit.
Late blight is caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans. Unlike most pathogenic fungi, the late blight fungus cannot survive in soil or dead plant debris. For an epidemic to begin in any one area, the fungus must survive the winter in potato tubers (culls, volunteers), be reintroduced on seed potatoes or tomato transplants, or live spores must blow in with rainstorms. Disease development is favored by cool, moist weather. Nights in the 50's and days in the 70's accompanied by rain, fog or heavy dew are ideal. Under these conditions, lesions may appear on leaves within 3-5 days of infection, followed by the white mold growth soon thereafter. Spores formed on the mold are spread readily by irrigation, rain and equipment. They are easily dislodged by wind and rain and can be blown into neighboring fields within 5-10 miles or more, thus beginning another cycle of disease.
Infection of potato tubers arises from spores that develop on foliage. Tubers exposed by soil cracking or erosion of hills may come in contact with spores washed down from infected leaves and stems by rainfall or irrigation. Tubers infected during the growing season may partially decay before harvest. Tuber infection may also occur at harvest when tubers contact living spores remaining on infected vines. Little if any tuber-to-tuber spread of late blight occurs during storage if tubers are kept under cool, well-ventilated conditions.
Besides potatoes and tomatoes, P. infestans can infect only a few other closely related plants. Occasionally peppers and eggplants are mildly infected, as are a few related weeds such as hairy (but not black) nightshade. Since 1990, there have been severe outbreaks of late blight in commercial and home garden plantings of potato and tomato in both the U.S. and Canada. Much of this has been associated with new strains of the late blight fungus that have spread to many areas. Some of these strains may interact and form a type of resistant spore that can survive for long periods in soil. Others are insensitive to a systemic fungicide (metalaxyl) that has been widely used in late blight management. The protectant fungicides commonly used to protect plants from late blight remain fully effective with all known strains of the fungus.
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