Blightwatch is a collaborative service supported by the Potato Council and Industry sponsors.
The Blightwatch service providers have worked to develop an online management tool which is available to farmers and other users free of charge.
Traditionally the risk of potato blight infection has been based on the calculation of Smith Periods – a system that uses hourly temperature and relative humidity recordings. However, until now Smith Periods have been calculated for only a limited number of Met stations around the country.
The Blightwatch service now covers the whole of the UK down to individual post code level meaning that alerts are now available for the Farnham and GU9 postcode areas.
The service operates in conjunction with the Potato Councils – Fight Against Blight! – service and delivers daily email and optional SMS alerts if blight risks are identified in our selected area(s).
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