High blight warning for west of the county

Conditions conducive to the spread of potato blight will be present from Wednesday night until Friday morning, according to Met Eireann, with West Cavan and much of the North West region highlighted as at high risk.

Meteograms published show Relative Humidity (RH), Temperature (TEMP), Effective Blight Hours (EBH) and 3-hour rainfall for various stations around Ireland.

Pale green areas have a very low blight risk (0-3 EBH), dark green areas have low blight risk (4-6 EBH), yellow areas have a medium risk of blight (7-9 EBH), orange areas have a high risk (10-12 EBH), red areas have a very high risk of blight (>12 EBH).

Potato blight is a plant-disease caused by a fungal-like organism called Phytophthora infestans.

The potato blight pathogen spreads rapidly in humid weather in the foliage of potatoes and tomatoes, causing the foliage to decay and the potato/tomato to be infected.

Met Eireann recently switched to new reporting rules. Though risk estimation has increased compared to the previous rules, estimated chemical usage is still lower compared to standard grower’s practice.

The new methodology is now referred to as the New Irish Rules.