US: NDSU Potato Blightline to operate again in 2016

The Plant Pathology Department at North Dakota State University will again be providing the potato Blightline service at no charge to the potato industry of North Dakota and western Minnesota in 2016. The NDSU Blightline is the first place to go to get the most recent blight updates and management information. This will be the 22nd year that this service has been provided by NDSU and has been continually sponsored by Syngenta Crop Protection. The hotline collects data collected from weather stations in fifteen non-irrigated and twelve irrigated production areas in ND and western MN. The data is processed by the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) and analyzed by a computer program (WISDOM) to forecast when conditions are favorable for late blight to occur. The program also provides forecasting information for the development of early blight of potato. More