Topic: Potato Pink Eye

[Bonk]

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Potato_PinkEye.htm

Anybody know anything about it? Looks like my potatoes got it. It was so darn wet this year, I guess that is what did it. Those pseudomonas species are friggin tough and tenacious. These potatoes are a gmo variety (tobacco genes), so the bugs have left the foliage alone, now I get pink eye? Sigh, ya just can't win.

I once observed Pseudomonas aeruginosa survive under 95% ethanol for seven days with no nutrient supply. It's all in the slime they produce  (polysaccharide biofilm).   (hmmmm..... polysaccharides... mucous enzymes... I think I just thought of a way to fight these buggers: "spit" - at least on industrial medical and food surfaces... might not be so useful for internal infections...)

Anyway, anybody have experience with it? Should I be concerned about eating them? The link above seems to imply it is OK, and simply reccomends cool dry storage. I suppose I'll be peeling and boiling them anyway so I think it should not be an issue... however, as mentioned these Pseudomonadaceae are unbelievably tough, I would not be that surprised to learn of a species that could survive boiling.

[Starfox1701]

My advice would be to use a pink eye resistan strain and use lady bugs and praying mantises to controle lefe eating pest you might also consider amending the soinl with earth worms. They sift the dirt for food like bacteria and natrually fertilise and airate the soil

[marstone]

My advice would be to use a pink eye resistan strain and use lady bugs and praying mantises to controle lefe eating pest you might also consider amending the soinl with earth worms. They sift the dirt for food like bacteria and natrually fertilise and airate the soil

if you tend your garden, you can get by without the lady bugs and such.  Use two fingers, squish bad bugs in your garden.  As for the pink eye.  Never had that in my stuff so don't know.  Sorry.

[Bonk]

A half acre is too big to manually squish bugs. I'd be there forever. I don't have a problem with bugs that much, mostly slugs since it was so wet this year. I might put a tobacco perimeter in next year to see if that helps. The big problem I have is Chenopodium album, it got out of hand, bad enough that I may have to skip planting next year and just cover and uncover it enough times to sprout and kill as many of the Chenopodium seeds as possible. But I think I have shortcut - just plant the rows wide enough so that I can get the tractor between them with the tiller on the three point hitch.

I like the idea of amending the soil with additional earthworms, but the problem with that is it would encourage cluster flies, which are a major pest here. (they lay their eggs in worms - and they cycle with ladybugs that feed on them) Another approach might be to saturate the plot with spring wheat and plow it back under for a year or two. That would lighten up the soil a bit, it needs more organic matter, it is too clayish and holds the water overmuch which I expect encourages these bacterial infections.

The freaky part about the Chenopodium album is that once it flowered, every stalk of it got covered in these little black mites... they don't seem to eat the plant, and are rather sessile (they hardly move), even when scraped off. There must be trillions of them out there. They don't seem to do any harm but are a bit gross. Actually, I'm finding the Chenopodium album quite an interesting plant, the bugs just won't eat it, and it seems defended by mites. I suspect I might be able to isolate and identify new organic pesticides from it (if I had the gear here.... anybody got a couple hundred thou?). There is a certain powder on the young leaves. I also suspect I could make new pesticides from tomato plants too.

Well I guess the best thing to do with the potatoes is dig them up early if it continues to rain a lot and make sure they are good and dry prior to storage. Then peel and cook well. Hopefully they'll be OK.

[marstone]

half acre, yeah, way to big.  I would agree with the plowing under a crop or so to help increase the organic mass if you are heavy clay.  The clay might be a chunk of your problem keeping the "feet" wet on your plants.

A tobacco crop around it sounds fair, and if nothing else you can smoke it when done.

[Kreeargh]

What tools do you have to work with?  Plow it up deep 12 to 18 inches if you can . What type of irrigation do you use? Weather can be controlled with some simple tricks .

[The Postman]

There is a fungicide that will help control it according to the links you provided...
If you wish, I can call my father tomorrow night who is good friends with one of the big farmers up in Aroostook County.