How to control potato common scab? Bacillus subtilis LNP-1 comes to the rescue
To grow beautiful and delicious potatoes, you need to work on both "innate seed selection" and "acquired microbial application"! Potatoes on the market have smooth, white skin, and their eye-catching appearance immediately grabs consumers' attention and appetite. However, during cultivation, potatoes are highly susceptible to "common scab" disease, which causes the skin to become rough and raised, or even develop protruding tumors, making their market appearance quite poor. So, how can you grow potatoes with a good appearance that stimulates appetite?
The Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute of the Council of Agriculture (hereinafter referred to as the Agricultural Research Institute) has developed a new microbial formulation called "Bacillus subtilis LNP-1," which can effectively control "potato common scab," a common field disease that causes raised tumors on potato skin, improving the yield rate of potatoes and increasing the probability of successfully selling to distribution channels. In addition, the Agricultural Research Institute also encourages farmers to use "healthy seed potatoes" for "innate" screening, which can also greatly reduce the rate of pathogen infection during potato cultivation, growing delicious and beautiful potatoes.
Agricultural Research Institute: Pair with "healthy seed potatoes" to adjust innate constitution
Fang Yi-dan, Chief Secretary of the Agricultural Research Institute, stated that in addition to providing assistance to potatoes through "acquired prevention and control," selecting good potato varieties from an "innate constitution" perspective can more effectively reduce the disease rate of potatoes and grow beautiful, delicious potatoes. Fang Yi-dan explained that potatoes are a crop quite prone to disease, including six types: common scab, black scurf, dry rot, soft rot, bacterial wilt, and late blight. To reduce the occurrence of these common diseases, seed farms cultivate "healthy seed potatoes" that are less susceptible to disease and provide them for farmers to purchase.
"Healthy seed potatoes" are produced by cutting and propagating stock potatoes, going through a process of approximately two years and three rounds of propagation. After confirming that this batch of "potato offspring" is healthy and sound, they are provided for farmers to purchase. Currently, private organizations in major potato-growing areas such as the Chiayi Xikou Cooperative and Fengyuan Farmers' Association all offer "healthy seed potato" services. The price of "healthy seed potatoes" is approximately 50 yuan per kilogram, roughly twice the price of regular potatoes that have not gone through this "healthy seed potato" confirmation process (today, the 25th, 18 yuan per kilogram).
Fang Yi-dan stated that currently "healthy seed potatoes" have only been promoted to about 30%, which is actually not high, so they are still mainly sold by pre-order. However, based on the characteristics of potatoes as a disease-prone crop, she still urges farmers to purchase "healthy seed potatoes" with more stable quality from a long-term perspective.
Lin Zong-jun stated that when using healthy seed potatoes for planting, if diseased potatoes unfortunately appear, they should be avoided from remaining in the field; pay attention to irrigation to prevent tubers from cracking due to water imbalance, which creates wounds for pathogen invasion; choose areas with good drainage for planting; and if the area has severe disease occurrence, it is recommended to rotate with rice to reduce soil pathogen density.