Smart insights into the infection pressure of your potatoes

Disease Warning System

The Disease Warning System is an innovative tool in the SmartFarm App. This allows you to respond to the current situation, prevent crop damage and minimize the use of crop protection products. The system provides insight into how good the conditions are for a particular disease. For potatoes, the application indicates the risk of infection of the following diseases:

• Alternaria
• Phytophthora
• Phytophthora tuber infection

However, different diseases will require different responses to the risk of infection. We will therefore explain for each of the above diseases how the disease pressure should be interpreted and what actions we recommend.

Alternaria (Alternaria solani)

Alternaria has a complex life cycle and is mainly spread by wind and splashing water to the lower leaves of the plant. Infection can occur from 10°C, with an optimal temperature for infection between 20°C and 30°C. Monitoring the average daily temperature and leaf wetness period is essential to determine whether action is necessary. Action is only recommended after at least 6 consecutive days of extremely high risk, when the plants are at least 15 cm high.

Phytophthora (Phytophthora infestans)

For Phytophthora, humidity and temperature are very important for sporulation, infection and survival of the spores spread on the leaf. The disease pressure is calculated based on the average of the past 4 days and today. In case of high disease pressure, spraying is recommended if the last spraying was more than 5 days ago.

Phytophthora tuber infection (Phytophthora infestans)

Tuber infections are caused by the washing away of spores from infected leaves by rainfall. Infections can also occur during harvest through direct exposure to infected, still living stems and leaves. The risk of tuber infection increases as the potato season progresses and the amount of rain increases. The risk is partly influenced by the temperature in the ground and the amount of precipitation.
Action may be necessary after three consecutive days of minimal risk. Now is the time to be alert and keep a close eye on your crops. When you detect a high risk for 2 consecutive days and signs of infection are visible, it is recommended to use a preventive fungicide, especially if the current protection decreases. If you observe two consecutive days of extremely high risk and infection is already visible, immediate action is necessary. It is then highly recommended to apply a preventive or curative fungicide today (if possible) to prevent further spread, especially if current protection wanes.

Find our schedule for disease pressure per potato diseases and the recommended actions associated with them here.

Efficient spraying

The disease pressure tool gives you a comprehensive picture of the disease pressure of your crops and you know when you should start using crop protection. However, the time of administration still plays an essential role in the decision to take action. Nowadays there is a lot of change in the resources available and these resources all differ in terms of optimal conditions. Fortunately, we also have a tool for this in the SmartFarm App: the SpuitEffect advice. With the help of this tool you can use your crop protection products efficiently, which saves time and money and is in line with an environmentally friendly crop protection strategy.

Read more about our SprayPlanner.