30 POTATO GROWER | NOVEMBER 2021
Diggin' In
Diggin' In
The past, present and future of potato disease diagnostics
Then & Now
DISEASE DIAGNOSIS | By James Woodhall
This year, as I received some of the first tubers from the 2021
harvest into the lab for diagnosis, I realized it's been 20 years
since I received my very first potato diagnostic sample, when
I was a Ph.D. student studying Rhizoctonia potato disease.
After a couple of hours' reflection (and maybe depression)
of wondering how time has flown by, I started to give some
thought to how we diagnosed things back then and maybe what
things will look like in another 20 years.