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Fungicide Spray Programs for Defender, A New Potato Cultivar with Resistance to Late Blight and Early Blight

Defender (A90586-11) is a new late blight-resistant potato cultivar which was released from the Tri-State Potato Variety Development Program in 2004. Conventional and reduced fungicide spray programs were compared on Defender and Russet Burbank (3 years) and Ranger Russet (1 year) in Wisconsin experimental field trials. Useful levels of field resistance to both late blight and early blight were observed in Defender in the absence of fungicide sprays and reduced fungicide input programs. Disease progressed slowest on Defender regardless of fungicide program, relative to Russet Burbank and Ranger Russet. Organic, conventional, and reduced fungicide spray programs also were compared on Defender and Russet Burbank in experimental greenhouse and field tests in Washington. Fungicide spray programs performed similarly on both Defender and Russet Burbank; however, area under the disease progress curve values for no-fungicide treatments were either three times (greenhouse) or six times (field) lower on Defender compared with Russet Burbank. Regardless of the fungicide program, total yield was higher for Defender than Russet Burbank. Mean economic returns associated with Defender also were higher than for Russet Burbank ($6,196 versus $4,388/ha). Fungicide and nonfungicide treatment programs generated similar returns on Defender whereas conventional and reduced fungicide programs generated comparable but higher returns than the nonfungicide program on Russet Burbank.