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Disease Detection and Losses

An Assessment of Potato Losses Caused by Oxidant Air Pollution in New Jersey. B. B. Clarke, Assistant professor, Department of Plant Pathology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903; M. R. Henninger(2), and E. Brennan(3). (2)Associate professor, Department of Horticulture and Forestry, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903; (3)Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903. Phytopathology 73:104-108. Accepted for publication 26 May 1982. Copyright 1983 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-73-104.

During 1978 and 1980, three potato cultivars were grown in the field and harvested according to standard commercial practices. A drench of EDU, (N-[2-(2-oxo-1-imidazolidinyl)ethyl]N'-phenylurea), an antioxidant, was applied to one-half the plants to protect against oxidant injury. The order of foliar sensitivity of these cultivars to oxidant was Norland>Norchip>Green Mountain. Generally, foliar injury was a function of the cumulative oxidant dose, and the time of maximum plant susceptibility was cultivar-dependent. When over 60% of the foliage was injured, tuber yield was reduced 25 and 31% in plants of cultivars Norland and Norchip, respectively. Yield reduction was traced to smaller sized potatoes in the Norland cultivar and to fewer tubers in the Norchip cultivar. The specific gravity of Norland tubers was significantly reduced in both years. When the two cultivars showed equally severe foliar injury, tuber yield of Norchip showed a greater reduction than Norland.