Certain potato diseases can survive from season to season in the field. Depending on the type of pathogen,
it may survive in the resting form either in the soil or in potato plant debris, or in a living form in surviving
potato tubers. On occasion, diseased tubers survive the winter and grow the following spring as diseased
volunteer plants. These volunteer potatoes are a source of contamination for the current season crops.
Most seed potato producers practice a three to four year rotation to minimize soil disease problems. Fields
with a previous history of bacterial ring rot infection should not be used for potato production for a
minimum of two years, and during those two years volunteer potato plants must be eliminated.