Smart insights into the infection pressure of your potatoes

Disease Alert System

The Disease Alert 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 plant protection products. The system provides insight into how good conditions are for a particular disease. For potatoes, the application displays the infection risk of the following diseases:

• Alternaria
• Phytophthora
• Phytophthora tuber infection

However, different diseases will require different responses to infection risk. Therefore, for each of the above diseases, we will explain how to interpret the disease pressure and what actions we recommend in this regard.

Alternaria (Alternaria solani)

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

Phytophthora (Phytophthora infestans)

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

Phytophthora tuber infection (Phytophthora infestans)

Tuber infections occur due to the washing off 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 rainfall increases. Here the risk is influenced in part by the temperature in the ground and the amount of precipitation.
Action may be required after three consecutive days with minimal risk. This is the time to be alert and keep a close eye on your crops. If you detect high risk for 2 consecutive days and signs of infection are visible, it is recommended to use a preventive fungicide, especially if current protection is declining. If you observe two consecutive days of extremely high risk and infection is already visible, immediate action is necessary. It is then highly recommended that a preventative or curative fungicide be applied today (if possible) to prevent further spread, especially if current protection is waning.

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

Efficient spraying

The disease pressure tool allows you to get a comprehensive picture of the disease pressure of your crops and know when to proceed with crop protection. However, the timing of administration still plays a vital 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 SprayEffect advice. Using this tool, you can use your crop protection products efficiently, saving time and money and consistent with an environmentally friendly crop protection strategy.

Learn more about our SprayPlanner.