INVESTING IN QUALITY:Montana seed potato growers enhance Idaho potato revenue through certification program

摘要

The first tenet of producing a quality, high-yield potato crop is "Plant Clean Seed." Quality assurance for healthy seed is accomplished through seed potato certification programs throughout the U.S. In Montana, as in all programs, we perform visual inspections for virus diseases and other disorders during the summer and post-harvest test. In addition, we perform comprehensive laboratory testing for potato virus Y (PVY) in the summer for early-generation seed lots, and for all seed lots in the post-harvest test. Montana is the only state to collect comprehensive summer leaf testing data, which provides a unique opportunity to assess virus spread using historical data from both summer and post-harvest tests. Virus spread can be calculated from the amount of virus planted (summer leaf test results) followed by post-harvest test results of the same lots.