29 Apr Agronomy Update – April 29th

Posted at 15:38h in Recent News by

Hi everyone,

It’s been largely a wet week in PEI, and it looks like it will be cool and damp over the weekend.  There are some potatoes planted Southern Kings, but most farms are yet to get on the ground much at all.  Hopefully next week will mark a turning point in getting things drying out and warming up.

The primary focus of my update this week is the attached PDF factsheet on The Road to Reduced Seed Cutting: Growing a Smaller-Sized Seed Lot without Sacrificing Yield.

Over the past few years, we’ve done quite a bit of work under the AIM Seed Management Working Group to explore opportunities to increase tuber numbers per cwt and reduce oversize seed tubers while not sacrificing the yield of seed.  These include:

  • Controlling physiological age through storage temperatures, sprout inhibition
  • Use of ethylene gas in storage
  • Tightening in-row seed spacing
  • Reduced nitrogen fertilizer rates
  • Gibberellic Acid (GA)

Please read the attached factsheet to explore how to create a more optimally sized seed lot, and what that means for the commercial potato producer.

Have a great weekend!

Ryan