Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32M A R C H 2 0 1 7 22 POTATO GROWER 2017 NPPGA Annual Research And Reporting Conference by Willem Schrage The NPPGA Research Reporting Conference was opened by its organizer Dr. Andy Robinson, of the North Dakota State University (NDSU) and the University of Minnesota (UMN) at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks, North Dakota. There were twelve speakers, mostly from NDSU, but also from USDA/ARS and UMN. Storage and Processing Evaluation of Advanced Potato Breeding Clones was the first topic, given by Dr. Darrin Haagenson, USDA-ARS. Dr. Haagenson quoted the East Grand Forks Potato Worksite’s mis- sion: That is to cooperate with uni- versity breeders, researchers, pro- ducers, and processors to evaluate storage and processing characteris- tics. In their research, they evaluate cold sweetening resistance in storage among breeding clones and report quality based on the following clas- sification system: • Class A: chip directly from 42°F after 7 months of storage. • Class B: chip directly from 45°F after 7 months of storage, but not from 42°F. • Class C: only chip from 48°F after 7 months of storage. In a chart Dr. Haagenson revealed Class A clones from Colorado, Beltsville, Michigan and North Dakota breeding programs such as: AC00206-2W, AC05153-1W, B3015- 1, MSV498-1, ND7519-1 and ND7799c-1. In their research to establish an in- house procedure for extracting and measuring total glycoalkaloid con- tent and composition, they had found that ND5873-23 had a higher glycoalkaloid compound and showed some resistance to Colorado potato beetle. Potato insects in 2017 caused unpleasant surprises in potatoes, according to Dr. Ian MacRae, UMN. One surprise was the large number of Colorado potato beetles. Dr. MacRae suggested that the early spring, followed by cool tempera- tures resulted in more delayed occurrence of Colorado potato bee- tle larvae, thus allowing them to escape some of the insecticide. He stated that no available insecticide works on eggs of Colorado potato beetles. “When you spray while eggs are still presents larvae will appear again,” he said. “One should never apply an insecticide with the same Mode of Action the second time.” He also warned that neonicotinoids are meeting more resistance in the Colorado potato beetle and that products working on larvae do not necessarily work well on adults. The second unpleasant surprise was caused by aphids. Even though aphid captures had been low this season the post-harvest tests in Minnesota and North Dakota reported higher than expected PVY counts. There was not an obvious reason for this. A possible late occurrence of aphids was men- tioned. The “Aphid Alert” program is a grower cooperators driven project. One can find more about this proj- ect on the internet at: aphid alert.blogspot.com or Aphidalert. umn.edu. An update on Dickeya and Pectobacterium Soft Rot was given by Dr. Gary Secor, NDSU. He stated that Dickeya dianthicola that was found in the USA was more aggres- sive than the traditional black leg in potatoes. It has a big host range, especially in ornamentals and horti- cultural crops, broccoli, onion, hyacinth bulbs. It occurs more “inside” the stem. It can cause dis- ease at lower inoculum levels. It is present in lenticels and moves in the vascular system. It has a higher optimum growth temperature of 86°F and is less hardy to survive out- side the plant. It shows only a short survival in soil. Dr. Secor suggested to manage the disease not by quarantine, but by sanitation and planting clean seed. He cautioned that certified seed fields may not express symptoms in cool climates, where most of the seed is grown. He said that most tuber infection is latent and not vis-