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Extension > Garden > Diagnose a problem > What's wrong with my plant? > Vegetable > Potato > Stunted plant

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Potato > Whole plant > Stunted plant

1 of 4
  • Potato Leaf Roll Virus (PLRV) 1
  • Potato Leaf Roll Virus (PLRV) 2
  • Potato Leaf Roll Virus (PLRV) 3

Potato Leaf Roll Virus (PLRV)

  • Plants are stunted
  • Leaves are cupped upward and yellow (white potato) or reddish (red potato)
  • Leaves become leathery and dry as infection progresses
  • Brown to black flecks can be seen in a net like pattern when the tuber is cut open
  • More information on Potato Leaf Roll Virus (PLRV)
2 of 4
  • Fusarium Dry Rot

Fusarium Dry Rot
Fusarium sp.

  • Plant may not emerge, or may emerge small and weak
  • Tuber surface has sunken dark spots, eventually becoming wrinkled in concentric rings
  • In storage, tuber develops a dry decayed cavity often with white fluffy fungal growth or pink to yellow spores inside
  • More information on Fusarium Dry Rot
3 of 4
  • Blackleg and Soft Rot 1

Blackleg and Soft Rot
Pectobacterium carotovora

  • In severe cases, plant is stunted, with yellow and wilted leaves
  • Seed potato may rot in the soil, plants do not emerge
  • Brown to black slimy sunken lesions on stems, most common starting at the soil line
  • Tuber flesh is white, soft and rotted. In severe cases the entire tuber rots away, leaving on the skin
  • Favored by cool wet weather
  • More information on Blackleg and Soft Rot
4 of 4
  • Black Scurf/Rhizoctonia Canker 1
  • Black Scurf/Rhizoctonia Canker 2
  • Black Scurf/Rhizoctonia Canker 3

Black Scurf/Rhizoctonia Canker
Rhizoctonia solani

  • Delayed or no emergence, have few stems, and poor growth
  • Small hard black spots stick to the skin of the tuber like dirt that won't wash off
  • Underground stems and roots have brown, sunken dry spots
  • Tuber production is low, tubers may be small and deformed
  • In severe cases, small green tubers form on the stem above ground
  • Stem has a white to gray flaky growth just above the soil line.
  • Most problematic in cool wet soils
  • More information on Black Scurf/Rhizoctonia Canker

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