Evaluation of the blight decision support system for the integrated management of potato and tomato late blight
I. M. SMALL (1), L. Joseph (1), W. Fry (1). (1) Department of Plant Pathology & Plant-Microbe Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, U.S.A.
We compared late blight suppression using standard grower practice to late blight suppression achieved using a web-based decision support system (DSS) in a series of naturally inoculated field experiments in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The Blight DSS links several models into a system that predicts disease dynamics based on weather, host resistance, and fungicide. The DSS contains two late blight forecasts, Blitecast and Simcast, and uses both historical weather data as well as site-specific weather forecasts up to seven days into the future. Simcast was used to guide DSS-based fungicide applications. Two different potato cultivars were used each year – one more resistant than the other. A late blight epidemic occurred in each year, and disease severity at the end of the season in the unsprayed more susceptible cultivar ranged from 39-98%. Disease suppression in the DSS-scheduled applications (no late blight) was equal to that in the standard grower practice (weekly application), but fewer fungicide applications were scheduled by the DSS on the more resistant cultivar. A major benefit of the DSS was to enable the manager to take advantage of host resistance. In each year, there was at least a 38% reduction in fungicide recommended for the moderately resistant cultivar, while maintaining the same high level of disease suppression as in the weekly application schedule.
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