PRESQUE ISLE – Potato growers in Aroostook County are worried about cull potato piles and slow reaction to potato blight by New Brunswick farmers along the northern Maine border.

Murray Blackstone, a member of the Maine Potato Board, raised the issue at a board meeting Wednesday.

He claims the proximity of the cull potato piles and blight to Aroostook County potato fields could be detrimental to northern Maine’s crop.

“Canadian growers need to take care of potato piles more quickly,” he said. “This could be hurting the industry on both sides of the border.

“Disease can spread quickly,” said the Caribou grower. “They have to get their act together.”

Don Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board, said he has been talking with potato-growing officials in New Brunswick but the problem is not being taken care of.

“It’s just not done as well as it should be,” Flannery said. “One of the problems is getting the information to growers from the New Brunswick industry.”

Blight and disease, once airborne, can affect crops for miles, and Blackstone said he believes something has to be done.

He wondered at the meeting how the Maine industry can help instruct New Brunswick growers about the problem.

Earlier this summer, potato blight was first found in New Brunswick and then in northern Maine days later.

“When a problem develops, they can’t seem to get it under control fast enough,” Blackstone said.

There was talk that some chemicals used in Maine to control potato blight and other problems is not available to New Brunswick growers because of restrictions there.

“Our growers just seem to be more proactive than they are,” Flannery said. “It’s very frustrating.”

The potato board also discussed the loss of acreage in the St. John Valley, the St. David area of Madawaska and nearby Grand Isle. Keith Labrie of St. Agatha, a grower who has potato fields in the St. David area, said as many 200 acres of potatoes were underwater over the weekend, after heavy rains in the St. John Valley.

Flannery said he visited the area Tuesday.

“They had a lot of rain and there is damage along the river,” Flannery said. “The water is receding and growers have already started spraying the crops that were inundated.”

He said there will be losses there. The problem was isolated to some low-lying potato fields along the St. John River.