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Cause of Potato Scab. The cause of common potato scab is a bacterium, Streptomyces Scabies, found in the soil. It is most common on light, sandy soils, low in organic matter. Soils that were previously grassland are particularly liable to having the disease. Soils with a high pH (recently limed) provide a better environment for the bacteria.
The first known reference to common scab of potatoes, dates back to 1825, but it was not initially thought to have a biological cause. Isolates of an organism that causes common scab of potato were first isolated by Roland Thaxter in Connecticut in 1890 and in 1892 he described the primary strain as Oospora scabies.