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SUMMARY:Improving uniformity of potato crops - Simon Smart
DTSTART:20120607T150000Z
DTEND:20120607T153000Z
UID:TALK36370@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Suzy Stoodley
DESCRIPTION:Potatoes are a major food crop both in the UK and around the w
 orld. The quality of potato crops in the UK has become increasingly import
 ant as consumers demand unblemished tubers of a convenient size. Tubers ar
 e often infected by several pathogens including the actinobacteria Strepto
 myces\, the fungus Rhizoctonia solani and the plasmodiophorid Spongospora 
 subterranea f. sp. subterranea\, which cause unsightly blemishes on tubers
 . There are currently no reliable chemical controls\, or truly resistant c
 ultivars\, meaning that cultural control methods are important. Other qual
 ity traits such as the size distribution of tubers within a crop\, and the
  susceptibility to bruising are also important to the potato industry. In 
 field trials at Cambridge University Farm I am investigating possible meth
 ods to control tuber blemishing diseases and what affect these have on oth
 er quality traits. One experiment examines the effects of soil cultivation
  methods\, irrigation rates and seed planting depth. The second examines h
 ow soil amendments affect microbial communities on developing tubers. The 
 third examines whether disease resistance can be increased using compounds
  that induce plant immunity. I will also sample tubers from commercial cro
 ps to understand how quality traits vary at different locations of the fie
 ld and between tubers that develop in different locations in the ridge.
LOCATION:Department of Plant Sciences\, Large Lecture Theatre
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