Research: Can vitamin B-1 supplementation control potato diseases?

A specific group of vitamins, the B group, may offer a new potential strategy to control diseases in crops. Recent laboratory research in tobacco, grapevine, rice and cucumber has shown that application of vitamin B-1 prepares plants to fight off pathogen attacks more rapidly and efficiently. This mechanism is called priming and can somewhat be compared to vaccination in humans. Researchers at Oregon State University’s Hermiston Agricultural Research & Extension Center tested the potential use of vitamin B-1 to prevent PVY buildup and spread of the virus in potato. The research was recently published in the American Journal of Potato Research and was partly funded by the Oregon State University Agricultural Research Foundation. More