Met Éireann has today (Friday, September 13) issued a Status Yellow advisory for potato blight across 12 counties.
The national meteorological service has said weather conditions conductive to the spread of potato blight will persist until 4:00p.m on Sunday (September 15).
The advisory currently applies to counties: Cavan; Clare; Cork; Donegal; Galway; Kerry; Leitrim; Limerick; Mayo; Monaghan; Roscommon and Sligo.
Potato blight is a disease caused by a fungus-like organism called Phytophthora infestans that spreads rapidly through the foliage and tubers of potatoes in warm, wet weather, causing collapse and decay.
Despite advances in fungicides, varieties and forecasting, there is still no means of eradicating an outbreak of blight in a potato crop, meaning that prevention is key.
According to Teagasc, €5 million is spent annually on fungicides in Ireland to mitigate against the disease.
Met Éireann
Meanwhile, Met Éireann has said that the weather this weekend will be mixed with some rain and showers at time.
For those looking ahead to the National Ploughing Championships, the good news is that high pressure is expected to dominate our weather from Monday onwards bringing mainly dry and settled conditions.
All area are expected to record below average rainfall over the coming week, with most parts seeing between 2 and 10 mm (10 to 40%).
In western part of Atlantic coastal counties rainfall amounts will be higher, but still below average, between 15 and 30mm.
Air temperatures are expected to recover close to normal this weekend and look set to rise above average next week.
While drying conditions are expected to deteriorate over the weekend, conditions are expected to improve to good from early next week.
Spraying conditions will be best from early next week when the weather is expected to become generally dry and settled.
Met Éireann said that rain and drizzle this weekend will lead to a deterioration in soil conditions in the west and north.
However, soil conditions should improve in theses areas through next week. Soils are anticipated to remain dry with some restriction to growth in the south and east.