This problem becomes particularly evident in areas with high rainfall during warm, humid summer periods. Late blight, a widespread disease in potato cultivation, can spread epidemically within a plant population under certain weather conditions and thus destroy the entire potato crop. If this happens at an early stage, the assimilation area of ​​the leaves is missing for the further development of the potato plants. This inhibits or stops tuber growth. Small tubers below a certain minimum size are not usable as market goods and therefore cannot be sold.

In addition, the copper agents used against late blight in organic farming are extremely controversial and the maximum amount is limited. The 6 kg of pure copper/ha/year permitted by the EU is sometimes regulated much more strictly by the associations. Organic Austria farms are only allowed to use 2 kg/ha of pure copper per year, although the problem is that copper only acts externally on the leaves as a contact agent and is washed off again by heavy rainfall if this occurs soon after application . It is rather difficult for the farmer to determine the number of crop protection treatments and thus the amount of copper in advance. There are many initiatives and research efforts focused on minimizing copper, but no effective replacement has yet been found.

This project aims to test various alternative crop protection products in field trials against all possible potato diseases. These experiments are carried out both at the headquarters of the Bioinstitute, at Moarhof in Ennstal, Styria, and at the Lambach branch.