Potato Council starts up aphid monitoring campaign

The Potato Councils network of 100 Yellow Water Traps (Aphmon) has now gone live for the 2010 season. Growers can be alerted when aphids are on the move in particular potato growing areas by signing up for free text or email alerts.

For more detailed information, growers can access the Aphmon web pages, hosted by Fera, via a link on the Potato Councils website (www.potato.org.uk).

The aphid traps are being set up earlier this year so growers can receive timely notice of which species are flying before significant crop emergence occurs.

You will have agreed spray programmes for the varieties you are growing with your agronomist or adviser, explains Potato Council technical executive Drummond Todd. Once spray programmes have been triggered, it is important to stick to them.

A good programme will not only control colonising aphids but avoid selecting for insecticide resistance within aphid populations that may migrate to your area.

Current spray programmes are most effective in controlling colonising aphids, such as the Peach Potato aphid, Myzus persicae, but when large numbers of transient aphids arrive from surrounding crops, a particular programme may be overwhelmed, particularly with regard to the spread of non-persistent viruses like PVY^N, adds Mr Todd.

It cant be stressed enough that using high quality seed and experienced roguing squads are the most effective strategies in early season virus control. Even if aphids arrive in large numbers during the growing season, if there is no virus source there will be no virus spread, he adds.