Potato dry rot is, thankfully, a fairly rare problem. The skin of the tuber becomes wrinkled and discoloured at one end. This becomes more pronounced and concentric rings of discoloured wrinkles develop.
Potato with Scab & Dry Rot at the end
Potato Dry Rot Close Up
The flesh under the affected area discolours, becoming grey to black or dark brown.
Eventually pustules develop on the affected skin, these can be white, pink or greenish in colour.
The pustules contain spores which on release go to infect other potatoes.
Cause of Potato Dry Rot
The dry rot is caused by fungi of the Fusarium family, either Fusarium coeruleum or Fusarium sulphureum, which are found in the ground.
It tends to trouble potatoes in the ground or in store, entering through the lenticels (breathing pores) in the skin or abrasions and damage either caused by poor handling when lifting or by pests (such as worms and slugs) or by scab infection.
The photo shows a scabbed potato with dry rot at the end.
How to Prevent & Control Potato Dry Rot
Apart from taking care when lifting and removing any infected tubers from store as soon as discovered and controlling other problems such as scab or eelworm, there is nothing else to be done. As I said above, it is a rare problem.
Susceptible varieties to avoid growing if potato dry
rot is a problem on your site:
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Potato varieties with good resistance to dry rot:
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Potato Growing Articles
- Growing Potatoes Overview – How to Grow Potatoes Guide
- How Many Seed Potatoes are Needed
- Potato Flowers, Fruits, Seeds & Breeding
- Growing Potatoes – Standard Traditional Method
- Growing Potatoes Under Straw Mulch
- Growing Potatoes Under Black Plastic (Polythene) Sheet
- Potato Growing in Raised Beds & Ridge Planting Potatoes
- Growing Potatoes in a Barrel – Patio Growing Potatoes
- Growing Potatoes in Bags | Greenhouse Potatoes
- Second Crop Autumn Planted Christmas New Potatoes
- Can you chit supermarket potatoes?
- Potato Varieties for Flavour -Boiled Baked Roasted Mashed
- Potato Fertiliser Program Program & (NPK) Requirements
- Potato Blight Cause, Identification. Prevention, Treatment Potato Blight
- Wireworm in Potatoes Cause Identification Prevention Control Potato Wireworm
- Eelworm Potato Cyst Nematode – Control Potato Eelworm
- Dry Rot in Potatoes Cause Identification Prevention Control of Potato Dry Rot
- Potato Scab – Common Scab in Potatoes
- Potato Scab – Powdery Scab in Potatoes
- Hollow Heart, Splitting & Spraing Potatoes
- White Spots on Potatoes Lenticels & Potato Stem Rot
See Also:
- Growing Potatoes for Show, Introduction & Best Varieties
- Growing Potatoes for Show, Cultivation of Show Potatoes
- Growing Potatoes for Show Harvest & Showing Potatoes
