30 Jun Agronomy Update – June 30th

Hi everyone.  Happy Canada Day weekend to you all.  It’s been a lovely few days, with lots of sunshine and warm temperatures to keep things growing.  I was out of the province from Wednesday to Monday, and I’m amazed at how much everything grew in the days I was away!

I haven’t been hearing about any big issues with emergence thus far in PEI.  In the fields I’ve been in, emergence generally appears to be even and on schedule.  If you are seeing issues with emergence and want to try and get to the bottom of it, check out the guide I sent out in my last agronomy update.  You can also get confirmatory testing done through the provincial pathology lab, which is open and accepting samples.

Morgan and I installed our Spornado spore collectors this week.  First samples for late blight will be tested next week and I’ll share results with you all summer through these agronomy updates.

There are a few upcoming events that I wanted to share with you:

Living Labs BBQs:

All growers are invited to attend two summer meetings next week where researchers and agronomists will be sharing results from Living Labs trials in an informal setting.  A chance to hear about the work that’s being done here in PEI while grabbing a burger and chatting with your peers.

Both events start at 11:00 am and including a free BBQ lunch.

Tuesday, July 5^th:  hosted by Greenfield Farms, 567 Bedeque Rink Road, Central Bedeque

Wednesday, July 6^th:  hosted by Souris & Area Wildlife at their office, 1358 Souris Line Road

Potato Crop Update Meetings:

Formerly known as the Fieldworker Meetings, these meetings hosted by the PEI Department of Agriculture & Land are open to all farmers, farm staff, scouts, agronomists, researchers, and anyone working in the potato industry.  At each meeting, there will be one or two short presentations by researchers and agronomists on current topics, followed by a round-table discussion updating on the progress of the crop.

The first meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 7^th starting at 7:30 am at the Emerald Community Centre in Emerald.  At the first meeting, topics of discussion will be emergence issues and volunteer control (Marleen Clark, PEIDAL) and post-emergent weed control (Dr. Andrew McKenzie-Gopsill, AAFC).

After this first meeting, the schedule for future meetings will be:

Tuesday, July 19^th            PEI Potato Board office, Charlottetown

Tuesday, August 2^nd        Canadian Potato Museum, O’Leary

Tuesday, August 16^th      Emerald Community Centre, Emerald

Tuesday, August 30^th      PEI Potato Board office, Charlottetown.

All meetings start at 7:30 am.  All are welcome, no registration required. 

Have a great Canada Day weekend everyone!

Ryan