Late blight reported in Aroostook County

By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
    PRESQUE ISLE – Late blight has reached potato fields in Aroostook County, and officials with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension are advising growers to be scouting their potatoes at this time.
    “Scouting the low areas of a field where fog may tend to hang or areas of a field that stay shaded are excellent places to look,” said Jim Dwyer, crops specialist. “Please also be aware that if long distance dispersal of spores is involved, ridges that could catch windblown spores and areas behind tree lines where spores could drop in, similar to snow piling up behind a snow fence, are also excellent spaces to explore.
    “If late blight is found, we strongly encourage growers to contact their neighbors,” he said. “This will allow your neighbors to be aware of the situation and undertake any additional practices they deem prudent.”
    At the July 17 Maine Potato Board meeting, University of Maine crops specialist Steve Johnson told directors that he was recently downstate looking at the tomato and potato late blight that’s “ravaging” the Dresden area.
    “It’s just ripping through,” he said. “It’s like a napalm line. There are people who’ve farmed for 20-40 years who have never seen late blight; they’re now finding out what a humbling disease it is. They’re pretty much at their wits end down there.”
    Last month, late blight was detected in potatoes in a commercial field and on tomatoes in a home garden in New York. The disease was also discovered in tomato seedlings stocked in the garden centers of large retailers in Maine including Wal-Mart stores in Bangor, Houlton and Presque Isle, as well as the Presque Isle Lowe’s. The company that produced the seedlings, Bonnie Plants, a large supplier of vegetable, herb and flower transplants based in Alabama, has cooperated fully and pulled its stock from sale and arranged for its destruction.
    Johnson said a positive late blight find has been made in one field in the Ft. Kent area; a find has also been made in Ft. Fairfield, one field in the Easton area and several fields in the Houlton-Hodgdon area.
    “What we’re finding is that the late blight is totally related to your proximity to the border,” he said. “If you farm in Caribou, you’re in much better shape than if you farm in Bridgewater, Houlton or Mars Hill because you’re farther away from the border. This is no different of a pattern than we’ve seen for the last 10 years.”
    In Maine, late blight has also been found on several diversified vegetable farms in the Knox and Lincoln county areas of southern Maine. On these farms, late blight is being found on both tomato and potato plants. Late blight has been detected in a community garden in the Waterville area, as well as in a small field in the Old Town area.
    Johnson said while late blight is in Aroostook County, it hasn’t “taken hold” yet.
    “It hasn’t multiplied or progressed,” he said, noting there are two epidemics officials are trying to combat – one related to the big box store and the other the late blight issue that occurs each year in the Northeast. “Realistically, we’re in a lot better shape than we were a year or two ago.
    “If we can get through the next two weeks … get to the first of August, I think we’re really going to be in pretty good shape … it could be substantially better than last year,” said Johnson. “We had a lot more spread this time the last two years, and I think one of the keys was it was discovered earlier in New Brunswick than it has been in the past. We got a good, week headstart notice and most of the people on the border took advantage of that which made a huge difference. That’s what we preach … early detection.”
    Dwyer said if suspicious symptoms are found, growers should be sure of the diagnosis before implementing additional actions.
    “Plant samples can be taken to the Pest Management Office in Orono or the Presque Isle Extension office for identification,” he said.
    For more information, call the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Pest Management Office at 1-800-287-0279, the Cooperative Extension Office in Presque Isle at 1-800-287-1462 or log onto www.gotpests.org.