Summary

Worldwide distribution. On members of several plant families, potato, radish, parsnip; most important on potato. A cosmetic disease.
Appearance affects market quality, but not yield.
A soilborne bacterium causes corky pits, sometimes deep and joining together, up to 10 cm. Survives a long time in soil. Spread on tubers for planting. •
Cultural control: healthy seed; avoid organic matter; remove volunteers; clean machinery, shoes, etc., to prevent spread to scab-free fields; 3-4-year crop rotation; collect and destroy infected tubers at harvest; avoid livestock going to fields after feeding on diseased tubers.
Chemical control: treat seed with captan or mancozeb

Common Name

Common scab of potato

Scientific Name

Streptomyces scabiei; previously, Streptomyces scabies.

AUTHOR Grahame Jackson
Information from Diseases of vegetable crops in Australia (2010). Editors, Denis Persley, Tony Cooke, Susan House. CSIRO Publishing. Photo 1 RW Samson, Purdue University, Bugwood.org.

Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project PC/2010/090: Strengthening integrated crop management research in the Pacific Islands in support of sustainable intensification of high-value crop production, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

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