Wet, humid conditions are leading to the worst season for late blight on potatoes on P.E.I. in years.
Provincial agriculture officials report 30 cases of late blight so far this summer in Island potato fields. Last year at this time, there were just two.
"We've had above normal rainfall. We've had a number of days with mist in the morning and those high humidity and rainfall events are favourable for late blight," Greg Donald, general manager of the P.E.I. Potato Board, told CBC News Monday.
"The disease is around and we've had favourable conditions for its development."
Cases have been confirmed in most parts of the province.
Donald said Island potato farmers are working hard to control the spread of the blight by applying fungicides.
Late blight starts on the leaf of the potato and works its way down into the potato, making it inedible. Blight can be devastating — it was blight that caused the crop failure in the Irish potato famine — but can generally be controlled with modern agricultural techniques.
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