Abstract
Preplant of potato seed pieces (cv. Superior) and postharvest treatments of potato tubers with a P. putida isolate antagonistic to Erwinia spp. were evaluated for their effect on soft rot development. The percent weight loss due to soft rot, the surface area and volume of tubers with rot, and the number of toothpick wounds from which rot developed were reduced by 50% in preplant treatments and by 75% in postharvest treatments. Greater soft rot reduction in postharvest treatments may have been the results of greater colonization of the tubers by P. putida.