Potato Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
Welcome to Maine Potato Integrated Pest Management (IPM). We provide up-to-date potato insect and disease scouting and forecasting reports to potato growers and industry professionals in central and northern Maine during the potato growing season. Reports are normally posted twice per week, but we will provide more frequent updates should conditions warrant.
About Potato IPM
The Maine Potato Industry is faced with increasing costs, high demands from consumers for quality, and pest pressures. At the same time, the Industry is trying to reduce pesticide usage, maintain quality and yields. As a tool to achieve these goals, growers can use an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program. IPM is a multidisciplinary approach to making crop management decisions, which includes these components:
- scouting
- pest identification
- economic threshold
- disease identification
- disease forecasting
- weed management
- control strategies
- safety
The University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s Potato Integrated Pest Management program is an integral and valued part of the Maine Potato Industry. It was initiated in the early 1970s by Extension Specialist staff under a special USDA grant. The pilot program of the 1970s has now grown into a sophisticated, multidisciplinary approach to controlling pests.
For more information about the Maine Potato IPM Program, please call 207.764.3361 or 1.800.287.1462 (in Maine) or email extension.aroostook@maine.edu.
Additional Resources
For more information about Maine potatoes, visit the Maine Potato Board website. You can also find the current USGS streamflow data on the USGS Water Resources page. The Maine FSA is now online, too, on the USDA’s Farm Service Agency’s website.