Managing and Monitoring Viral and Soil-Borne Pathogens in Tasmanian Potato Crops

The characteristics of Tasmanian potato production, including its geographic isolation, seed certification scheme, and long rotations have helped to minimize the incidence of important potato viruses. However, many soil-borne pathogens have steadily built-up in Tasmanian potato soils. The main influence on pathogen concentrations, especially for the powdery scab pathogen, seems to be the presence of the host crop in the rotation. A useful predictive relationship between pathogen DNA and powdery scab severity has emerged from work to date but needs testing across a range of potato cultivars.