KANANASKIS, Alta. – A common potato disease may have met its match in the claws of a lobster.
Potato diseases caused by the fungus rhizoctonia are a problem known around the world, says Rick Peters, who works for Agriculture Canada in Prince Edward Island.
“I don’t know if there is a field that grows potatoes that hasn’t had rhizoctonia affect plants at some time or another,” he told the Potato Growers of Alberta annual meeting.
A strain called AG-3 is the main potato pathogen that reduces overall yields, creates knobby tubers and causes black scurf on the skin that looks like dirt that won’t wash off.
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“It is a pathogen that has multiple facets to it,” Peters said.
Various management approaches are being researched and one with surprisingly good results is spreading fish plant waste on the soil.
Since the research started six years ago, researchers in P.E.I. found raw or composted lobster and crab claws spread on the soil provided another management alternative to combating potato disease.
The raw product produced the best results.
“We have done a lot of this work in an organic setting,” he said.
“A lot of the growers in P.E.I. that are growing organically are using this waste material.”
Home gardeners have also tried it.
A material called chitin is found in the shell of the lobster at rates of 14 to 35 percent on a dry weight basis. Tests showed the chitin content improved the soil by adding nitrogen and helped suppress disease by increasing beneficial bacteria in the soil and the tubers.
“There is a symbiotic relationship that is going on,” Peters said.
“In agriculture we have the option of emulating that by using soil amendments and different types of crop rotations to take advantage of the beneficial organisms that are there already.”
His research on crop rotations using clover and canola also appeared to reduce the level of rhizoctonia. Canola worked particularly well, possibly because it stimulates soil microbes that suppress disease.
