Spudman January 2023 - 38

The Potato Association of America mission statement: The PAA and
its allied associations must strongly support the private sector through
Extension, research and commercialization efforts aimed at enhancing
the role of the potato as the premier food source for the 21st century.
Potato Association of America
Honorary Life Members for 2022
Potato Association of America
E
ach year, the Potato Association
of America honors researchers
who have made significant
contributions to the potato industry
through Honorary Life Membership
awards. Congratulations to the
awardees for 2022.
His dissertation research, which
documented the benefits of bacterialand
fungal-feeding nematodes on
nutrient cycling and plant growth, was
published in Ecological Monographs
and is considered one of the landmark
publications in nematode ecology.
During a four-year postdoc in soil
ecology at the Natural Resources Ecology
Laboratory of Colorado State University,
he studied the roles of root-feeding
nematodes as primary consumers in
mixed grass prairies and determined
that nematodes consumed more plant
biomass than vertebrate herbivores, such
as bison and prairie dogs, in that system.
Ingham joined the Botany and Plant
Honorary Life Member
Russell E. Ingham
Russell E. Ingham is an emeritus
professor in the Department of Botany
and Plant Pathology at Oregon State
University in Corvallis, Oregon. He
completed a bachelor's degree in
biology at St. Olaf College in Northfield,
Minnesota, in 1974, a master's degree
in zoology at Texas A&M University
in 1977, and a Ph.D. in zoology
and entomology at Colorado State
University in 1981.
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Spudman * January 2023
Pathology Department at Oregon State
University in 1985 and has studied the
biology and management of plantpathogenic
nematodes on several crops.
After several years of research on
peppermint, he and former graduate
student Kathy Merrifield summarized
their work in a 39-page manual on
biology and management of nematodes
in mint. This has been widely used by
growers and is currently available online
as a PDF file.
Ingham and colleagues at the
Hermiston Agriculture Research and
Extension Center (HAREC) were the
first to report damage from stubbyroot
nematodes (SRN) to storage and
dehy onion in the Columbia Basin.
Ingham worked out the relationship
between nematode densities and
yield reduction for different size
classes of onions and determined the
effectiveness and economic benefit
from the use of a relatively inexpensive
nematicide (Vydate oxamyl).
Ingham has spent much of his career
working with various colleagues on
nematode problems in potato caused by
Columbia root-knot nematodes (CRKN)
and SRN, which vectors tobacco rattle
virus to cause corky ringspot disease
(CRS). He and Phil Hamm at HAREC
determined that double fumigation
with Telone and metam sodium would
provide excellent control of tuber damage
from CRKN and CRS when either
product alone may not. Furthermore,
they determined that if both fumigants
were used in combination, control
was still satisfactory if the rate of each
was reduced. This practice was widely
adapted and has saved potato growers
millions of dollars in reduced tuber
damage and reduced product cost.
Ingham, Phil Hamm and others
also determined that injecting metam
sodium into the soil through shanks
instead of through irrigation water (as
was the industry standard) provided
much better control of CRKN and CRS.
This was an important finding since
shanking in metam sodium requires less
of a buffer zone than when it is applied
via chemigation.
Ingham and graduate student Nick
David developed a protocol for the
timing of the application of Vydate for
control of tuber damage from CRKN
based on nematode developmental
degree-days that have been widely
adopted in the Columbia and Klamath
basins, as well as other potato-growing
areas. Similarly, Ingham and student
Brian Charlton worked out an effective
protocol for using Vydate to control CRS.
Ingham has led efforts that included
several of his colleagues who have
Spudman January 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Spudman January 2023
