Researchers and industry experts to share knowledge and insights.
UPL will host a potato blight webinar on Tuesday, April 30th, at 5pm featuring leading potato blight experts and researchers.
It comes ahead of a critical season for control with the spread of strains resistant to leading fungicides in Europe.
The expert panel will include Dr David Cooke, Research Leader at the James Hutton Institute, Eric Anderson, Senior Agronomist at Scottish Agronomy, and Dr Stephen Kildea, Research Officer at Teagasc. Geoff Hailstone, potato Technical Lead for UPL, will chair the discussion.
Along with Dr Alison Lees, Dr David Cooke leads the team running the Fight Against Blight monitoring service, which has close links to the pan-European monitoring programme EuroBlight. Dr Cooke will provide attendees with the most up-to-date information on the spread of resistant strains, particularly EU_43_A1 (EU43) and EU_46_A1 (EU46), which have garnered significant attention due to their resistance to mandipropamid and oxathiapiprolin.
Dr Kildea is part of the team that first discovered EU43 in Ireland last season. He will share the advice he is offering Irish growers, and provide a perspective on building blight programmes without mancozeb.
One of the country’s leading potato agronomists, Eric Anderson, will provide practical advice on building blight programmes for the season ahead and comment on The Fight Against Blight and EuroBlight findings.
Attendees are encouraged to ask the panel their questions to make the most of their expertise.
Potato Review will provide a full report on the discussion in its July issue, and the webinar will be available to playback on UPL’s YouTube channel.
To register to attend, visit the sign-up page.
