JANUARY 27, 2008: Last year was the worst for potato blight in 50 years, but the SoilAssociation said two-thirds of its organic farmers managed by usingblight resistant varieties, crop rotations and burning or choppinginfected vegetation.
It said that less than 30% of organic potato farmers used copper last year.The Soil Association only allows the use of copper when disease is a major threat to the crop and hopes to reduce the amount farmers can use as alternative organic controls and resistant strains of potatoes are being developed.
