Spudman

New Potatoes Withstand Destructive Wireworms

Wireworm feeding damage is easy to spot, says Rich Novy, an Agricultural Research Service plant geneticist seeking to shore up America's $3.3 billion potato crop. The damage resembles a nail hole that has been punched into the spud, pitting its surface and making it less appealing for use in fresh-pack or processing markets.

ARS researchers and a former researcher have focused attention on two wild relatives of cultivated potatoes obtained from Chile and Bolivia: Solanum berthaultii and S. etuberosum in their efforts to create a cultivar resistant to wireworm.

To read more on this research go to http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/sep11/wireworms0911.htm.

Originally posted Monday, Sep. 12, 2011