Fight against Stolbur: sugar beets and potatoes in great danger!

Fight against Stolbur: sugar beets and potatoes in great danger!

Agriculture in southern Germany is facing a growing threat, manifested by the plant disease “Stolbur”. This sugar beet disease has been known in the Ludwigsburg district since around 2017, but it was not until 2023 that it caused serious damage to sugar beets and potatoes, such as Bietigheim newspaper reported. The symptoms are alarming for farmers: lower yields and reduced water-holding capacity make the beets soft and rubbery. What is particularly dramatic is that the affected plants show visual devastation; the fields appear brown and dead.

Significant yield losses of up to 25 percent for sugar beets and up to 70 percent for potatoes were already recorded last year. The spread of the reed leafhopper, which transmits the bacterium “Candidatus Phytoplasma solani”, is favored by warm winds. Farmers are increasingly on alert, as the Alb-Donau district could also be affected by the threat, as is the case Swabian newspaper determines.

Preparations against the cicada

With the official release of a new insecticide on May 23, 2025, the situation could potentially ease. However, farmers are still skeptical. Michael Kinzinger, deputy chairman of the Heilbronn-Ludwigsburg Farmers' Association, emphasized the need to wait to see how effective this insecticide is before using it on a large scale. In addition, some farmers are already using net covers to protect their potatoes.

The control of the cicada is carried out under strict conditions. The Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety has issued emergency approvals that allow the use of insecticides for 120 days and are intended to minimize the cicada population. In regions that have been identified as hotspots, control should take place after an official warning service call, while in transition regions spraying may only be carried out if certain symptoms and a loss of yield occur. In other regions the use of insecticides is not justified, like that Weekly newspaper DLV explained.

Hope for improvement

The ongoing damage to sugar beet and potatoes makes it clear that a combination of insecticides and other measures will be needed to support farmers. More will be known about the situation from autumn 2023, and it remains to be hoped that containing the vector will also reduce infestation with Stolbur phytoplasma. The newly approved funds could soon be crucial to securing future harvests.

The population must prepare for the possibility that the availability of domestic potatoes may be limited in the fall if the disease continues to spread.