Author: PotatoAgronomy (Ryan Barrett)

It’s been a wet week in PEI…though we were due for some rain, given how favourable the fall weather has been this year. I have a couple of upcoming extension opportunities to pass along today.   Colorado Potato Beetle – November 30th Spud Smart and the Canadian Potato Council are hosting a webinar on Tuesday,...

Hi everyone, I hope that harvest is progressing well for everyone.  I’ve talked with quite a few growers who are finished digging, and many more that should finish this week if the weather cooperates.  From all accounts, folks are digging a tremendous crop. Morgan and I finished digging our final trial field yesterday morning.  We...

Hi everyone, Today is a rare day in the office today…letting things dry out before getting back to yield sampling tomorrow.  It looks like most of the Island got between 10-20 mm of rain yesterday.  In most communities, that amount of rain is likely welcome, as the soil was getting pretty dry in most places....

Hi everyone, Another beautiful day in PEI and great weather to dig potatoes.  It looks like we’ve collectively made a lot of progress for October 7th…I’d say half the crop might be out of the ground already. In my conversations with growers, it sounds like both yield and quality is exceeding expectations.  There are some...

Hi everyone, Just a quick update today.  Everyone is busy with harvest and likely isn’t paying a ton of attention to emails, but just few things to pass along today. Morgan and I (plus a cast of other fantastic helpers from multiple groups) have been busy getting going on trial harvest. So far, the weather...

Hi everyone, I’ll keep this update short and sweet, as everyone is busy either starting harvest or getting ready for harvest.  Just a few things that have come up in conversations with growers over the past week that might be good to touch on. We’re probably too late to plant brassica crops (radish, mustard) as...

Hi everyone, I looks as though most fields escaped the frost advisory last night without significant damage.  It didn’t go below 7C at my place, but I hear it went to around 4C in a few places.  The forecast for the next couple of weeks looks relatively warm…hopefully that will keep an early frost at...

Hi everyone.  Apologies that my update is a bit late this week…a wet start to the week plus a week of field tours has slowed things down a bit from this desk. So far today, I’m seeing rainfall totals ranging from a couple of mm to over 50 mm.  Largest numbers appear to be in...