Potatoes: watch out for late blight

With changeable weather and rising temperatures, Phytophthora develop quickly. It is therefore important to be alert and to keep the spraying schedule closed; because preventive work is always much better and cheaper than having to correct curatively afterwards. This is especially important with the new, more aggressive strains.

In concrete terms, the advice is to use a product in the early phase of foliage development, until the beginning of flowering, that grows with the crop and thus protects the new leaves. In view of the changeable weather conditions, the product must also be rain-resistant quickly. In the most critical phase of rapid foliage growth, REVUS . protects^® the existing and new foliage long and effectively due to rapid absorption and distribution in the wax layer. Revus is rainproof within 1 hour and can therefore no longer be rinsed off during a rain shower. 

In recent years, even despite the dry summers, the proportion of more aggressive Phytophthora strains has increased considerably. Also this year, EuroBlight (European Network for the Control of Phytophthora in Potatoes) has published data on the development of the new strains. In order not to take unnecessary risks with these more aggressive strains, the maximum label dosage must be used for each fungicide.

Many products have a spray interval of 7 days on the label. This can sometimes be just too long under critical conditions, especially in a fast-growing crop. If you're about to run out of schedule, you can fix it by using AMPHORE^® Flex to deploy. This is Revus with cymoxanil in the formulation for added curativity.

Our current advice and dosage:
- Revus 0,6 ltr/ha
- Amphore Flex 0,6 kg/ha

Would you like more information about tackling Phytophthora and Alternaria? Then read here further, and contact me if you are interested.