Bethink pink: Understanding pink eye disorder of potatoes

Pink eye is a disorder of potato tubers that can cause costly storage losses for potato growers and can reduce tuber quality to the point where tubers will be rejected by potato processors. Pink eye is a physiological disorder – an abnormality in plant growth – rather than a true disease that involves a disease-causing microorganism. Pink eye not only directly affects tubers, but also makes tubers more susceptible to diseases such as Pythium leak, bacterial soft rot, pink rot and Fusarium dry rot. These diseases cause additional storage losses and reduction in quality. Pink eye is characterized by a short-lived external pink color that is often, but not always, found around the potato eyes of freshly harvested tubers. Browning of tuber flesh due to pink eye can resemble browning due to other disorders such as internal brown spot or heat necrosis, and pink eye can also be confused with late blight. Growers can practice management strategies that minimize water-saturated soils and reduce warm soil temperatures, thus reducing the severity of pink eye. Read more