Phosphites Effect on Late Blight Control and Physiological Parameters in Commercial Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) in Argentina

PABLO L. CICORE; PATRICIA A. SUAREZ; ADRIANA B. ANDREU

Pest Technology

Global Science Books

Lugar: Kagawa University; Año: 2012 vol. 6 p. 27 - 31

1749-4818

Phosphite (Phi) has been recommended to enhance plant resistance against Phytophthora spp.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of calcium phosphite (PhiCa) and potassium phosphite (PhiK) under fieldconditions, taking into account physiological parameters, performance and protection against late blight in the foliage of twopotato cultivars, and comparing these results to controlled in vitro experiments. Experimental design was a split plot inrandomized complete blocks with four replicates. The main plot comprised two potato cultivars (?Kennebec? and ?Spunta?) andthe sub-plots three late blight control treatments: control, PhiCa and PhiK. The interaction between cultivar and treatment on thearea under disease progress curve (AUDPC) was determined. In ?Kennebec?, the PhiK treatment showed a significantly lowerAUDPC than control and PhiCa treatments. No differences were detected between treatments on ?Spunta?. In the detached-leaftests, there was a significant treatment effect (P < 0.01). In both cultivars, PhiK application resulted in a significantly lowerdamage growth rate (DGR) compared to the control and PhiCa treatments, although there was less difference in ?Spunta?.Treatments tested had no significant effect on yield. However, PhiK application tended to increase yields by 20.5 and 14.8% inrelation to control and PhiCa treatments, respectively. Under experiment conditions, Phi decreased disease severity andincreased yields, with differences between cultivars and chemical compounds.