The planting of the potatoes is in full swing almost everywhere and several regions have already almost finished planting. There are always visible differences, including this season. For example, there are also regions that are still lagging behind.
In the south-west of the country, planting the potatoes goes quite quickly. "At least 90% will have been planted by the end of next week," reports Luc Remijn, advisor at Delphy. "It already started halfway through last week and it's going fast." Remijn sees that it is dry, although this has not yet caused any problems for the potatoes.
Flevoland is less far
Growers in Flevoland are not as advanced as in Zeeland. According to Jan Salomons, advisor at Delphy, many consumption potato growers in Flevoland have started planting the potatoes. "I expect that in Southern Flevoland about 40% will have been planted by the end of this week." In Eastern Flevoland, growers are even less advanced. Estimates for that region range from 5% to 30%. It appears that the large growers in particular have already started planting, while the smaller growers are still waiting.
"The underlayer has been quite wet until now, mainly because 100 millimeters of precipitation fell in the months of February and March. This has meant that growers have still had to wait. Salomons also expects that seed potato cultivation will start next week. with planting. "Drought is a risk, especially in seed potato cultivation, because moisture is the most important factor for tuber formation."
Limburg is not yet dry everywhere
In Gelderland, the planting of potatoes has also started in full swing. The light soils dry quickly, which means that Gelderland growers who have seed potatoes are almost ready. If we look further to the southeast (to North Limburg), even less has happened there. "Premières have already been planted left and right, but it is not yet dry enough everywhere. Sowing the onions and spreading the manure has priority," says Koen Peters, advisor at Delphy.
This also applies to the province of Groningen and the peat colonies. About half of the companies there have now started planting. "I expect that about 10% of the (starch) potatoes are now in the ground. More towards the north of the province, on the heavy clay, I don't think there are any potatoes in the ground yet," says Han Kammer. , advisor at Delphy, know.