This problem becomes particularly evident in areas with high rainfall during hot, humid summers. Late blight, a widespread disease in potato cultivation, can spread epidemically within a crop under certain weather conditions, destroying the entire potato foliage. If this occurs early in the growth cycle, the leaves lack the necessary surface area for photosynthesis, hindering further development of the potato plants. This inhibits or halts tuber growth. Small tubers below a certain minimum size are unsuitable for market and therefore unsaleable.
Furthermore, the copper-based pesticides used against late blight in organic farming are highly controversial and subject to maximum application limits. The 6 kg of pure copper per hectare per year permitted by the EU is sometimes regulated much more strictly by the organic farming associations. Organic farms in Austria are only allowed to use 2 kg of pure copper per hectare per year, but the problem lies in the fact that copper, as a contact pesticide, only acts externally on the leaves and is washed away by heavy rainfall if it occurs soon after application. For farmers, it is rather difficult to determine the number of pesticide treatments and thus the amount of copper to use in advance. Many initiatives and research projects are focused on minimizing copper use, but so far no effective alternative has been found.
This project aims to test various alternative plant protection products against all possible potato diseases in field trials. These trials will be conducted both at the headquarters of the Bioinstitute, at the Moarhof farm in the Enns Valley in Styria, and at the Lambach branch.
