A modified latex agglutination test with plastic Petri dishes and the dispersant Tween-20 in the extraction buffer proved to be a simple, reliable procedure for routine detection of potato viruses X, Y, S, Andean potato laten and Andean potato mottle in leaves both of singly infected indicator hosts and potato. The main advantages of the modified method are that the flocculates found are large and easy to see, that equal or less amounts of sensitized latex are used, and that non-specific reactions occur less often than with other methods. The method is equally sensitive for detecting more than one virus when polyvalent latex is used. © 1984 Kluwer Academic Publishers.