Progress Report to the Maine Potato Board Research Subcommittee

January 12, 2007

 

Project Title:         Integration of Crop Rotations using Barley, Soybean, and Forage Rotation Crops into Potato Production Systems.

 

Investigators:

     A. Alyokhin, Dept. of Biological Sciences

     M.S. Erich, Dept. of Plant, Soil & Environmental Sciences

     E. Gallandt, Dept. of Plant, Soil & Environmental Sciences

     D.H.  Lambert, Dept. of Plant, Soil & Environmental Sciences

     Ellen Mallory and Tim Griffin, NEPSWL, USDA-ARS

     G.A. Porter, Dept. of Plant, Soil & Environmental Sciences (project coordinator)

     S. Smith, Dept. of Resource Economics & Policy

 

Executive Summary:

 

                A large-scale, cropping system experiment (15 acres, 96 plots) was continued on Aroostook Research Farm in Presque Isle during the 2006 growing season.  This experiment compares soil management systems, crop rotations, and pest management systems.  The soil management systems compared are a conventional, chemically fertilized system versus an amended system that receives manure and low rates of chemical fertilizer.   Three crop rotations are compared: 1] two-year standard (potatoes-barley); 2] four-year intensive (potatoes-soybean-potatoes-barley); and 3] four-year integrated (potatoes-soybean-barley-alfalfa).   An integrated pest management system (IPM) using conventional chemicals is compared to an environmentally-friendly pest management system (ENV) that uses fewer and/or less toxic pesticides. 

 

            Amended versus Non-Amended Soils:   Soil analyses show that the amended system has significantly higher soil organic matter, cation exchange capacity, Modified Morgan available P, and soil-test K, Mg, and Ca.  Soil pH, S, B, and Zn were also significantly increased by the amendment program and it has also consistently increased soil aggregation and lowered soil bulk density.   These plots have provide a wealth of information on the use of manure in potato systems and the mineralization of N from amended potato soils in Maine. 

 

Even though the 2006 growing season had high rainfall, we saw a 52 cwt/A (18%) yield increase in the amended management system compared to nonamended.  The incidence of powdery scab root galls was significantly increased in the amended system, but we have noted much lower incidence in the 4-yr rotation than the 2-yr rotation during the past two years.  The amended system slightly increased scab incidence in the 4-yr rotation plots, but dramatically increased it in the plots that had potatoes appearing every other year.   Amended soil management plots had significantly higher specific gravity and slightly smaller tuber size than conventional soil management during 2006, but otherwise had comparable tuber quality.  Considering the six-year period from 2001 to 2006, total yields were higher (27  cwt/A) in the amended soil management system compared to the non-amended system even though the average N, P2O5, and K2O fertilizer rates were reduced by 59, 100, and 87%.   Soil management system did not affect incidence early blight, late blight, or rhizoctonia during 2005, but amendments increased white mold incidence, powdery scab root gall incidence, and scab incidence on tubers.  The amended soil management system had numerically lower CPB populations, but significantly greater European corn borer damage and higher potato aphid populations than the check treatment.

 

            The amended soil management system, designed to improve soil quality through the addition of organic amendments, provided the optimal combination of enhancing potato yields and reducing the year-to-year variability of those yields.  Analysis of 1992 - 2004 potato yield data for this study indicated that potato yields in the amended soil system (manure, compost, green manure, and supplemental fertilizer) were equal to or up to 55% higher than yields in the contrasting nonamended soil system (synthetic fertilizer) in all but one year.  Yield stability was also enhanced in the amended system compared with the nonamended system, as demonstrated by lower coefficients of variation of total and U.S. #1 potato tuber yield.  Stability analysis indicated that yields in the amended system were less influenced by adverse growing conditions, particularly low rainfall.  Total and U.S. #1 treatment yields in the poorest yielding year were 65% and 53% of maximum yields, respectively, in the amended system compared with 44% and 45% in the nonamended system.  Yields and yield stability were also influenced by pest management system and cultivar, but not rotation.

 

            Crop Rotation Comparisons. .  The crop rotation treatments had no significant effects on yield during 2005 and 2006.  The four-year rotation tended to have fewer external tuber defects.  We have also seen very few effects of the rotation treatments on diseases and insects in this experiment; however, the incidence of powdery scab galls was lower in the 4-year rotation than in the 2-year rotation during 2005 and 2006.  There also tended to be lower incidence of scabby tubers in the 4-year rotation.   The data show that soybeans can be included in potato rotations with no short-term yield loss and that short-term potato yields do not strongly benefit from including forage legumes in the rotation and extending the crop rotation to one year of potatoes in four.   Data from the 2007 through the 2008 growing seasons will provide a more complete picture of the soil, crop, and pest responses to lengthening a crop rotation to four-years under northern Maine conditions.

 

IPM versus an alternative, more environmentally pest management system (ENV).   Pest control was very good in the ENV system during 2006 and the results show that yield and quality were not significantly different in IPM versus ENV pest management system despite a reduction in the fungicide active ingredient load compared to the IPM system, the use of biological insect control, and cultural controls for weed management.  Over the six-year period (2001-2006), we saw no significant yield loss from the ENV pest management; however, the IPM program had a slight numerical advantage in yield (14 cwt/A average per year).  The results show that many of the synthetic chemicals used in potato production can be replaced with other inputs; however, there may be increased in costs (e.g. CPB control products) and there is the potential for some yield loss (though not statistically significant in our study).  IPM had significantly higher CPB populations than ENV during 2006.  There may be increased risk from alternative pest management programs in terms of disease spread (e.g. increased virus disease spread if ENV fails to effectively control aphids; potato aphid populations were higher in ENV than IPM during 2006 and green peach aphid populations were significantly higher in ENV during 2005 and numerically higher in 2006) or disease outbreaks (e.g. although the ENV program has been effective at controlling early and late blight from 2001 through 2006, we do not know how it would hold up under heavy disease pressure.

 

Project Objectives:

            1).        Continue a long-term, large-plot, research study focusing on Maine potato cropping systems by examining:

                        1a)       The impact of crop rotation length on potato yields, quality, pests and soils.

                        1b)       The use of soybeans and forages as additional rotation crops in a potato-production system and their effects on potato yields, quality, pests and soils .

                        1c)       The impacts of these crop rotations on soil quality with or without additional organic matter in the form of animal manure.

 

            2).        Develop an understanding of crop performance and potato pest ecology in an IPM-pest management system compared to a reduced chemical pest management system.

 

Grant Received:

 

            $7,123

 

Progress Report for the 2006 Growing Season:  

 

Crop Rotation and Soil Management Systems:  The 2006 field season was the second field season that we could study the second cycle through our crop rotation treatments: (crop rotations: barley-potatoes; barley-potatoes-soybean-potatoes; soybean-barley-forage-potatoes).  The data collected from 2001- 2004 represented the system performance in the first full cycle through the four-year rotation schemes.  The data will be most useful when compared as an average over each four-year cycle (e.g. the average from 2005 to 2008 would represent the potato performance in the second full cycle though each four-year rotation).

 

            The 2006 field season represents the eighth full year in the new soil amendment program.  The non-amended soil management system used an average of 170-120-235 lbs/A (N,P2O5 K2O, respectively) supplied as chemical fertilizer (combined preplant, at-planting, and sidedressed application).  The amended system averaged 40 tons/A manure (f.w. basis) and received an average of 70-0-0 supplied as chemical fertilizer.  Relative to the non-amended system, the manure application and the past fertility built up in the amended system resulted in the following reductions in chemical fertilizer use during 2006: Nitrogen 100 lbs/A (59%), 120 lbs/A P2O5 (100%), and 235 lbs/A K2O (100%).

 

            These plots receive no supplemental irrigation; however, 2006 was a relatively wet growing season.  Despite the high rainfall, there was no increase in most observed diseases of potato as a result of the alternate soil and pest management systems.   ENV provided generally good insect pest control and weed control Aphids remained the major concern for insect control in the ENV system.

 

Experimental Description –2006 Potato Cropping Systems Study

 

15-acre cropping systems study, 96 plots

Aroostook Research Farm, Presque Isle, ME

 

Planted:            June 15, 2006

Variety:            Atlantic

Vinekilled:         September 22, 2006 (99 days after planting)

Harvested:        October 17-19, 2006

 

Pest Management Systems

 

            IPM vs. BIO (“Environmentally Friendly”)

 

                                    IPM                             ENV “Environmentally Friendly”

            Insects              higher thresholds           lower thresholds

                                    Provado 1.6F                Bt

                                    Monitor             Beauveria bassiana

                                                                        Fulfill                                                   

           

            Disease                        chlorothalonil                 azoxystrobin

                                    EDBC                          and reduced protectant program

                                   

 

            Weeds              PE, metribuzin               cultivation - Lely (75% of plots 1X; 25% of plots 3X)

                                    cultivation (1X)              cultivation - between rows (2X)

                                    hilling 2X                       hilling 2X

 

Soil Management System

 

            No amendment vs. amended (manure; reduced fertilizer rate)

           

            Non-amended: 170-120-235 (lbs/A of N-P2O5 -K2O, respectively).

            Amended:         40 tons/A manure (f.w. basis)

70-0-0 supplied as ammonium sulfate.  Relative to the non-amended system, the manure application and the past fertility built up in the amended system resulted in the following reductions in chemical fertilizer use during 2005: 100 lbs/A (59%), 120 lbs/A P2O5 (100%), and 235 lbs/A K2O (100%).

 

Crop Rotations:

 

            IPM System:

            1) standard (two-year with grain)                                               potatoes-barley

            2) intensive (potatoes 2 out of 4 years plus soybean)                    potatoes-soybean-potatoes-barley

            3) extended (potatoes 1 in 4 years plus soybean and forage          potatoes-soybean-barley-alfalfa

 

            ENV System:

            3) extended (potatoes 1 in 4 years plus soybean and forage          potatoes-soybean-barley-alfalfa

 

History:

 

1991-1998 Old Design               last full report published covered 1991-1994

                                                last journal paper covered up to 1996

 

New Design:

 

1998                 new design rotation crops planted

1999                 transition year, second year of new standard, intensive, and extended rotations

2000                 transition year, third year of  new standard, intensive, and extended rotations

2001-2004         first complete cycle of intensive and extended rotations

each year generates a full set of data comparing crop rotations

                        four-year averages are the most appropriate measure of rotation performance

2005-2008         second complete cycle of intensive and extended rotations

each year generates a full set of data comparing crop rotations

                        four-year averages are the most appropriate measure of rotation performance

 

 

Soils:   The comparison of the amended versus non-amended management systems allows us to determine how an “organic matter rich” system will respond compared to a conventional, short-rotation, fertilizer-based soil management system.  The non-amended system is typical of that used on most commercial farms in the area.  It is our reference or standard system.  The amended system has received “long-term” applications of manure and/or compost (since 1991) and low rates of chemical fertilizer.  This system might be typical of one used in future “sustainable” programs, organic production, or conventional farming integrated with animal-based agriculture.  Percent organic matter in the amended system is approximately 4.8% compared to 2.8% in the conventional system.  The amended system has significantly higher soil organic matter, cation exchange capacity, Modified Morgan available P, and soil-test K, Mg, and Ca.  Soil pH, S, B, and Zn were also significantly increased by the amendment program.  We have also consistently seen greater soil aggregation and lower soil bulk density in the amended system.  Soil moisture levels are typically higher early in the season and after rainfall events

 

A laboratory study was completed exploring how soil amendment history affects the transformation and availability of recently added N.  Net mineralization in the historically amended soil was twice that in the nonamended soil, mostly due to differences in soil total N stocks.  When N sources were added, NH4+ consumption, net N mineralization, and estimated N pools were affected by both soil amendment history and N source, with a significant interaction between the two factors.  Historically amended soil reduced the availability of recently added N relative to the nonamended soil.  This reduction occurred in the active pool (N1) for the high C/N manure and in the slow pool (N2) for fertilizer.  It appeared to be related to the timing of C availability.  Future work modeling N availability should consider soil amendment history not only for its effects on soil N supply capacity, but also for its effects on the availability of recently added N sources.  The results of this study are in press with the Soil Science Society of America Journal.

 

We also studied the relative contribution of current versus previous applications of manure nitrogen to a barley crop.  Barley samples were collected at physiological maturity from historically amended and nonamended plots where manure or fertilizer had been applied as usual and in subplots where these N applications had been withheld.  The samples were analyzed for N content, or N uptake.  The data from the different subplots were used to estimate what proportion of the available N came from current versus previous application of manure.  It was found that mineralization of residual organic N from previous manure applications contributes more N to a current crop than is typically credited in nutrient management planning.

 

Potato Crop: We measured plant emergence, stands, and percent ground cover during the growing season.  Petiole samples, leaf samples, foliage samples, and tuber samples were collected for nutrient analysis.  The crop was harvested, weighed and graded to measure yield and tuber quality.  Potato tubers were placed in storage and the incidence of superficial tuber diseases was measured.

 

Results:   Summary yield and quality data from 2006 are presented in Table 1.  Even though the 2006 growing season had high rainfall, we saw a 52 cwt/A (18%) yield increase in the amended management system compared to nonamended.  The incidence of powdery scab root galls was significantly increased in the amended system, but we have noted much lower incidence in the 4-yr rotation during the past two years (Figure 1).  The amended system slightly increased scab incidence in the 4-yr rotation plots, but dramatically increased it in the plots that had potatoes appearing every other year (Table 1; Figure 2).   Amended soil management plots had significantly higher specific gravity and slightly smaller tuber size than conventional soil management during 2006, but otherwise had comparable tuber quality.  Considering the six-year period from 2001 to 2006, total yields were higher (27  cwt/A) in the amended soil management system compared to the non-amended system even though the average N, P2O5, and K2O fertilizer rates were reduced by 59, 100, and 87%.   These data show that manure and soil nutrient reserves can effectively replace fertilizer nutrients and that potato yields can be increased by the use of organic soil amendments even when low chemical fertilizer rates are used.  The data also show that the yield benefits from the use of soil amendments are greater during dry years (e.g. 2001) than wetter years (e.g. 2003, 2004, and 2005).   This differential effect reflects higher soil organic matter content, improved soil structure, and greater water holding capacity.

 

The crop rotation treatments had no significant effects on yield and tuber quality during 2006 (Table 3), but there was a trend toward lower incidence of external tuber defects such as scab (Table 1; Figure 2).   These data show that soybeans can be included in potato rotations with no short-term yield loss.  The data also suggest that potato yields do not benefit in the short-term from extending the crop rotation to one year of potatoes in four and including forage legumes in the rotation.  This is surprising, since we expected and have seen in other experiments that less frequent potato production can reduce pest incidence and improve soil physical properties.  The lack of rotation effect in this experiment may be due to the relatively short duration of the rotation treatments or the predominance of wet growing seasons in recent years.  We’d expect more benefits from soil improving strategies during drier years. 

           

Pest control was very good in the ENV system during 2006 and the results show that yield and quality were not significantly different in IPM versus ENV pest management system despite a reduction in the fungicide active ingredient load compared to the IPM system, the use of biological insect control, and cultural controls for weed management (Table 1).  Over the six-year period (2001-2006), we saw no significant yield loss from the ENV pest management; however, the IPM program had a slight numerical advantage in yield (14 cwt/A average per year).  The results show that many of the synthetic chemicals used in potato production can be replaced with other inputs; however, there may be increased in costs (e.g. CPB control products) and there is the potential for some yield loss (though not statistically significant in our study).  There also may be increased risk from alternative pest management programs in terms of disease spread (e.g. increased virus disease spread if ENV fails to effectively control aphids; green peach aphid populations were higher in ENV than IPM during 2005 and 2006) or disease outbreaks (e.g. although the ENV program has been effective at controlling early and late blight from 2001 through 2006, we do not know how it would hold up under heavy disease pressure).  If these changes in pest management practices are to occur, growers would need to receive a higher price for their efforts or other programs would need to be enacted to foster riskier, but more environmentally benign approaches.


Table 1.           Potato yield and quality as affected by pest management, soil amendment, and crop rotation.  Potato Ecosystem Project, Aroostook Research Farm, Presque Isle, ME.  2006 Growing Season.

                                                                                                                                                            

                                                    Yield (cwt/A)           % Ext. Defs.     Size  Distribution (%)  Spec.

                                                Total    US#1   US#1   Total    Scab     1f                      Grav.

                                                                        >2¼ "                           to 4"   to 4"   to 4"

                                                                                                                                                            Pest Management System

Comparison:

 

IPM pest mgt.                          315      264      239      14.0      2.7      96.9    87.9    61.2     1.095

ENV pest mgt.                         299      253      227      12.0      1.2      96.3    86.0    60.8     1.095

 

No Amendment                        279      234      211      14.2      0.2      97.5    87.6    61.3     1.092

Amended                                 337      286      258      11.4      3.8      95.5    86.1    60.7     1.098

 

            AOV Results:

            Pest Mgt.                     .13       ns         ns         ns         ns         ns         ns         ns         ns

            Soil Mgt.                      *          .09       .12       ns         .06       .09       ns         ns         .07

            Pest. x Soil                   ns         ns         ns         ns         ns         ns         ns         ns         ns

 

Soil Management within

the IPM System:

 

No Amendment                        301      258      234      12.5      1.0      97.8    88.6    63.2     1.091

Amended                                 347      257      226      23.9    16.6      96.2    85.1    59.4     1.096

 

Two-year Rotation1                  326      256      226      20.4    12.6      97.3    86.5    61.8     1.092

Four-yr intensive Rotation2        327      253      226      19.1      9.6      96.9    86.5     61.1     1.094

Four-year Rotation3                  315      264      239      14.0      2.7      96.9    87.9    61.2     1.095

 

            AOV Results:

            Soil Mgt.                      *          ns         ns         .12         *       **        *         ns         *

            Rotation                       ns         ns         ns           ns        ns        ns         ns         ns         ns

            Rot. x Soil                    ns         ns         ns           ns       ns         *          ns         ns         ns

                                                                                                                                                            

External defects in the pest management sequence: growth cracked tubers were the most prevalent defects.  External defects in the soil management sequence: scabby and growth cracked tubers were the most prevalent defects.

1 Barley-Potato Rotation (in place since 1991 growing season)

2 Barley-Potato-Soybean-Potato  (started in 1999, 2006 data are the second cycle through this rotation).

3 Soybean-Barley-Forage-Potato (started in 1999, 2006 data are the second cycle through this rotation).

Note: due to problems in the field, plot 323 was dropped from the analysis.

 

 

 

 

 


 

Potato Yields and Yield Stability.   The amended soil management system, designed to improve soil quality through the addition of organic amendments, provided the optimal combination of enhancing potato yields and reducing the year-to-year variability of those yields.  Analysis of 1992 - 2004 potato yield data for this study indicated that potato yields in the amended soil system (manure, compost, green manure, and supplemental fertilizer) were equal to or up to 55% higher than yields in the contrasting nonamended soil system (synthetic fertilizer) in all but one year.  Yield stability was also enhanced in the amended system compared with the nonamended system, as demonstrated by lower coefficients of variation of total and U.S. #1 potato tuber yield.  Stability analysis indicated that yields in the amended system were less influenced by adverse growing conditions, particularly low rainfall.  Total and U.S. #1 treatment yields in the poorest yielding year were 65% and 53% of maximum yields, respectively, in the amended system compared with 44% and 45% in the nonamended system.  Yields and yield stability were also influenced by pest management system and cultivar, but not rotation.

 

The results of this study are being published in Agronomy Journal.

 

 

Potato Disease Management:      From 1995-98, disease management in the BIO system was based on frequent application of Cu-containing compounds.  This provided a comparison versus standard synthetic fungicides.  The program was successful in that we had few problems with the major foliar diseases on potato, late blight and early blight.  Unfortunately, the BIO system tended to be associated with earlier crop senescence and significant reductions in crop yields during most years from 1991-1998.  The result was a system that was not economically viable in our analysis of short-term returns.   Because of the significant yield loss commonly observed in the BIO system from 1991-98 and because we felt that a disease management program so heavily based on a persistent metal (Cu) was undesirable, we modified the BIO system into an “environmentally-friendly” system, synthetic-chemical-based system (ENV) and have used that system since 1999.    Disease management in the ENV program uses minimal rates and frequencies of chlorothalonil and strobilurins with application frequencies dependent on disease pressure forecasts.  This program is similar to that developed in Wisconsin in conjunction with the World Wildlife Fund. The ENV pest management system has been very effective is providing disease control, while reducing the fungicide input in a period when disease pressure has been low.  Active ingredient applications have typically been reduced by 60% in each growing season.

 

     The two diseases that the fungicide treatments are designed to control are late blight (Phytophthora) and early blight (Alternaria).  Late blight has been absent or sporadic in the plots since 1998, and incidence of foliar early blight has been low to negligible.  Several other important diseases affected by the Cropping System treatments are present in the study.  These include white mold (Sclerotinia), powdery scab (Spongospora) / Potato Mop-Top Virus (PMTV), and Rhizoctonia.

 

         White Mold - White mold was sufficiently evident to warrant rating in 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006.  In 2000, when disease pressure was high, incidence in the environmentally friendly plots was one third that in the IPM plots.  To some degree, this was attributed to the use of Quadris, a strobilurin fungicide labeled for white mold on other crops.  Over the 10-year period, white mold incidence in the amended plots has increased relative to the nonamended plots.  This difference became statistically significant in 2006. Presumably, the generally damper soils in the amended plots marginally favor the disease in any year and the disparity increases over time as inoculum differences compound.  Neither the previous crop sequence, rotation length (2 or 4 yr), or pest management treatment were statistically significant in 2006.

 

 

 

 

                                                                       

Text Box:
 

 

 

 


         

 

The two diseases that the fungicide treatments are designed to control are late blight (Phytophthora) and early blight (Alternaria).  Late blight has been absent or sporadic in the plots since 1998, and incidence of foliar early blight has been low to negligible.  Several other important diseases affected by the Cropping System treatments are present in the study.  These include white mold (Sclerotinia), powdery scab (Spongospora) / Potato Mop-Top Virus (PMTV), and Rhizoctonia.

 

         White Mold - White mold was sufficiently evident to warrant rating in 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006.  In 2000, when disease pressure was high, incidence in the environmentally friendly plots was one third that in the IPM plots.  To some degree, this was attributed to the use of Quadris, a strobilurin fungicide labeled for white mold on other crops.  Over the 10-year period, white mold incidence in the amended plots has increased relative to the nonamended plots.  This difference became statistically significant in 2006 (Table 2). Presumably, the generally damper soils in the amended plots marginally favor the disease in any year and the disparity increases over time as inoculum differences compound.  Neither the previous crop sequence, rotation length (2 or 4 yr), or pest management treatment were statistically significant in 2006.

 

Table 2.  Incidencea of white mold in relation to soil amendment

    and pest treatment.

___________________________________________________________________

 

                 Soil treatment                                       Pest treatment

            ----------------------------                         -----------------------------

Year         Non        Amnd                                 IPMc                ENV

___________________________________________________________________

 

1997              2            2                                     1                    3 * c

2000            13            18                                  20                     6 ***

2003          10             19                                  16                    13

 

2006          13             24*                                17                    24

____________________________________________________________________________________

a  2000 rating system = numbers of infections per row within two-plant observation units; 2003 and 2006   

    =   numbers / 30 observations.

b  Amnd = amended, Non = nonamended; IPM = “conventional” and “reduced input” in 1997, and “IPM” in 2000 - 2006, Env = “biological” in 1997 and “environmentally friendly” in 2000 - 2006.

c  Statistically significant within the same year at P = 0.05 (*) or P = 0.001 (***).

 

 

         Powdery Scab / PMTV - Two patterns of powdery scab incidence and severity have emerged in the Cropping System’s plots.  This disease is quite sensitive to periods of high soil moisture which allow spore dispersal in conjunction with tuber susceptibility, and severity varies considerably from year to year despite the general availability of inoculum every year.  In years when the disease has been monitored by root or tuber symptoms, incidence in the amended plots has been at least 4-fold that in the nonamended plots (Table 3).     Incidence in the environmentally-friendly plots has been substantially lower than that for the conventional/reduced input/IPM plots in several years.  While the possibility that powdery scab inoculum was introduced with the potato compost or manure amendments exists, differences in soil moisture are a more consistent explanation of the greater disease in the amended plots.  Regression analysis of powdery scab incidence data from past years indicates that scab severity increases with higher soil organic matter levels and with the associated higher water content.  This pattern appears sufficiently strong to explain the differences in powdery scab incidence between the amended and nonamended treatments. The previous heavy applications of copper to the biological plots are a likely explanation of less disease in these plots.  Powdery scab has been higher in 2-year rotations than in 4-year rotations, significantly so in the last two years.   

         In 2002, 3/16 amended plots were positive for mop-top virus; in 2003 1/16 amended plots was positive.  In 2005, PMTV was detected in a single amended) plot in which 7 of 9 plants were positive. In 2006 PMTV was detected in one amended plot (2/6 hills) and one nonamended plot (1/6 hills). 

 

Table 3.  Percentage powdery scab tuber 1996) and root gall incidence (2000-2006) as affected by soil, pest, and rotation treatments.

______________________________________________________________________________

   

                               Soil amendment                     Pest treatmentb                 Rotation                                                                                               

Year                       Non      Amnd                      IPM     ENV                  2-yr    4-yr

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1996 - Superior          0.1            0.9***c                  0.7         0.2***                               

1996 - Atlantic               2          17 ***                   13           3 ***                     

2000 - Atlantic               8                      55 ***                  35         20                      33         30

2001 - Atlantic               3          15 ***                   12           0  *                   11        10

2002 - Atlantic        23          62 **                         34         33