The potato or also known by the name of potato, is a food that provides high-quality carbohydrates and proteins, being a nutritious food that provides properties that benefit the body, such as vitamin “B” “C”, fibers and minerals, in addition to its reduction having a fairly high potassium contentalthough it is also deficient with some vitamins such as “E” “B12” “A” and fats.
Despite the fact that the potato has a positive side and very little negative side, when it comes to cultivating many problems can arise, since, they can present many pests and malignant symptoms of various kinds, that is why we must take potato diseases into account when growing the tuber.
What are the most common potato diseases?
There are a large number of potato diseases, that is why it is necessary to know about each one to be able to take action when a case arises and to do so. not lose the crop much less the time and money invested in it.
Potato negron
The first disease that we will disclose is the Potato negronfungus that develops in very dry circumstances, usually affects the stems and leaves of the potato, always beginning to affect the oldest leaves, with circular black spots, what we must do when seeing this type of disease, is to make a wide rotation of crops, maintain good mineral nutrition and apply fungicides preventively.
Potato scab
Then we have the potato scabconsidered a conservation disease, a fungus that is transmitted by the soil or by an infected seed, appears on the tubers with a silver shine, so the best thing to do in these cases is to collect the tubers at the time of maturity and store them in a cool place with good air quality.
Powdery or deep scabies
Powdery scab mainly affects tubers which, after washing, have brown pustules.
It is a disease that mainly affects the tubers, compromising their appearance and is associated with the groundwhere it survives for many years and spreads through the seed of the infected potato and although it causes more problems in cold climates, it can be found in all conditions where the potato is grown, as long as the soils are well humid.
It is generally only observed after harvest, mainly when the potato is washed.
Late blight
Then there is one of the most important and dangerous potato diseases, the late blight or mildewwhich affects the entire potato crop and is responsible for the greatest economic losses in the world. It develops when there is a large increase in humidity, but also when there are high temperatures in centigrade, enough to give way to fungus spores.
This disease presents with green spots on the edges of the leafletswhich go towards the stem turning from a green to black color, the most advisable thing for this fungus is to maintain a good coverage of the ground, harvesting the potatoes that have been affected before storing them and applying crop protection fungicides.
Potato worms
Another of the potato diseases that attack it on a large scale are the Nematodesthese microscopic worms store and feed at the expense of the root system of the potato, causing symptoms such as weakening of the plants, thus creating an unpleasant quality in the commercial sense, yellow in color, dwarfism and reduced production.
The control for this type of parasites is do not plant virgin potatoes in previously infected areas and apply herbicides of good quality and certified for this type of case.
These are the most important diseases suffered by potatoes, it is up to you to recognize them and remedy them.
