Potato
Michigan Potato Industry Commission
Updated August 2025
- Development of alternative management and detection methods for emerging issues, currently:
- Monitoring and managing insecticide resistance of Colorado Potato Beetle and other emerging pests and developing alternative management strategies for current controls
- Potato virus Y (PVY), direct tuber testing in seed potatoes
- Mop Top Virus vectored by Powdery Scab
- Tobacco Rattle vectored by stubby root nematode
- Prepare to control insects (especially Colorado Potato Beetles and aphids) if the use of neonicotinoids is lost
- Prepare to control diseases such as late blight with the reduced use of chemistries such as chlorothalonil and mancozeb
- Improving potato production systems with emphasis on:
- Beneficial soil microbial activity
- Nematode population diversity
- Fertility improvement to positively impact specific gravity and tuber quality
- Enhancement of the ability to quantify nutrients in irrigation water and evaluate their impact on crop performance
- Cover crops
- Improved mechanical or technical tools and methods to increase water use efficiency, increase aquifer recharge, and reduce runoff
- Organic amendments for sustainability in modern potato production
- Develop a better understanding of climate resilience management practices
- Genetic improvement through variety development and trials for traits to improve
- Commercialization (taking into consideration size profile, consumer taste preference, reduced invertase levels to address acrylamide, and storage management
- Ongoing evaluation, investigation, and analysis of varieties that help to expand market access
- Resistance to Colorado Potato Beetle, other insects, and diseases
- Improve the use of technology to better understand abiotic, biotic stress, and seed vigor to increase resilience in potato production systems
- Integrated management of soil, seed, and foliar borne diseases to reduce vine and tuber rotting in potatoes. Post-harvest pathogens control and handling of potatoes (controlling storage pathogens and storage issues including new sprout inhibitor development), in particular addressing:
- Early Die
- Early Blight and brown dot
- Bacterial Soft Rot (tuber and vine)
- Silver Scurf
- Black Dot
- Late blight
- Pythium
- Fusarium
- Emerging new diseases
- Development of new weed control management strategies in potato to address
- Weed chemical resistance and control management strategies
- Volunteer potato complex (insect and pathogen carryover)
- Variety herbicide sensitivity
- Invasive species
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