Climate change in Italy has led to a significant increase in the presence of wireworms in potato crops. The damage is so great that in the absence of an adequate phytosanitary protection strategy, a country may be left without a potato crop.
Potatoes with visible signs of wireworm damage result in lower product quality standards for potato growers. In fact, this is a commercial problem, since the holes from the pest on the potato tubers entail damage associated with the only depreciation of the product and its technological value.
This does not meet the standards set by the industry, while for the consumer the organoleptic value of potatoes does not deteriorate, and very rarely rot develops from holes.
To avoid the economic crisis in the potato sector, research has been conducted for many years at the Cerealicoltura and Colture industriali di Bologna research center with the support of the Veneto Agriculture (agricultural research sector) and the agricultural consortium Emilia, which recently published a study on this topic.
The first interesting aspect highlighted in the study is the importance of variety selection.
Potato berries are poisonous. Even if you eat one of them, you can get poisoning.
Earlier varieties significantly limit the risk of damage to tubers for two fundamental reasons: fewer days of exposure to the field with the same pest population in the soil; fewer larvae, which gradually, in the hot season, reach an amount and size sufficient to significantly damage the tubers.
Therefore, knowledge about which varieties are really relevant in various Italian pathological zones, as well as about the biological cycles of each of them, are of particular importance.
In addition, to control the risk of wireworms, it is preferable to carry out early sowing and harvesting: harvesting in a short time, as soon as possible, always leads to a reduction in damage.
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